@ProAudioIQ

3 months ago

Streaky, from one full-time engineer to another, I sincerely hope you’ll respond to my comments. If you read all the way through, you’ll see it is NOT a rant or a troll. I genuinely would love to understand why you are you so interested in squeezing music so hard in a time when mobile device amps allow you to actually increase the dynamic range of pop and EDM and get insanely tight and hard hitting bass and kick if you would simply open up the dynamic range a little more. You have to know what I’m talking about, right? Your customers at least deserve to know that their music could be more open but still insanely hard hitting if you would do that for them. How loud is loud enough for you? What is your end goal with tips that so heavily restrict dynamics in music? I don’t just mean this tip but all tips that are genuinely overly reducing dynamics in music. In case you aren’t aware, the impetus of LUFS being implemented (in addition to aligning average levels of songs for listener’s comfort), was to compensate for early dynamic range limitations of single amp mobile device headphone amplifiers that were causing music with actual dynamic range to sound too soft in noisy environments, and then too loud in parts because of people compensating with master volume to hear those soft parts, only then to be blasted with the louder parts. LUFS levels implemented by Apple, YouTube, Spotify etc completely solved for that. This specifically relates too when watching a movie at home on Netflix etc. We know the “for home” film Blu-ray and streaming remixes obviously provide a narrower-than-cinema dynamic range but they are still wider than what mobile device headphone amps could historically reproduce, so LUFS averages were set accordingly which of course affect and determine overall dynamic range. This at least helped us get closer to the mobile device being able to reproduce the majority of the dynamic range it was being hit with. BUT, Now that headphone amplifiers have improved so dramatically on mobile devices, there is current standards talk of changing LUFS specs to provide for even more dynamics in streaming content. (notice Netflix is -27 LUFS! That’s because cell phones can handle that dynamic range now). Many of your mastering tips for music though are essentially preventing listeners from experiencing this newly available dynamic range in mobile devices - which is more capable than ever before. Your suggestions reduce and squeeze their music into a fatiguing 3-4dB dynamic range for even EDM music that should AT LEAST be in the 5-8dB dynamic range so speaker systems don’t go into essentially DC/ thermal protection mode. Plus, why fatigue the listener unnecessarily (?) (let it breathe a little) Run one of your mastered EDM songs at festival levels through your system for an hour and you’ll see what I mean. Also now we have noise canceling earbuds that improve that available dynamic range even further (signal/noise ratio). Streaky, I know this seems like a rant or a tirade but please see it for what it actually is. You’re loudness tip are adding wood to the loudness war fire. We’ve been trying to eliminate that for over 25 years. If you have any respect for Bob Ludwig, please look at his plea in the late 90’s to the industry to stop squashing music. Thanks! Alex Jenkins

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