Mastering. Loudness War Vs. Streaming Platforms

[dmchannelitaly]

Is the loudness war over? Well, online it probably is. Check out this website http://www.loudnesspenalty.com/, provides info about how loud your master will be played on popular streaming platforms. There's also a good podcast about this website with the developer Ian Kerr from MeterPlugs http://themasteringshow.com/episode-51/

 

[jvms]

So everything is getting turned down below 0 dB now, right? Does that mean I can just finish my mix with no limiters or clippers on it, normalize it, send it to a streaming platform and it'll be played as loudly as regular comercial music?

 

[TedEH]

Is the loudness war over?

I don't think we're anywhere close to the end of that war. Almost every new release from any big-ish named band I've run into lately has still been mastered louder than it's predecessor, with the exception of Opeth who got slammed for going against the grain with their production. Lamb of God is still really bad for this- Sturm Und Drang is so far smashed up against that limiter that I typically turn down the volume whenever it comes on.

There's only so much an automated normalizer in a streaming service can do. You're still going to get some stuff that sounds louder/quieter than other stuff. And we've reached the point where a certain level of "loud" production is just the expectation now. I don't think it's going away any time soon.

 

[Rawkmann]

I wish it were true, but I haven't been hearing anything to validate those claims.

And we've reached the point where a certain level of "loud" production is just the expectation now.

That's probably the real truth of the matter. I think a large (majority) portion of Your audience is going to think something is wrong if Your band's recording is quieter overall and actually has dynamics.

 

[TedEH]

I maintain that this was the reason Opeth's latest stuff wasn't well received. It's good stuff, it just doesn't fit the "modern" standard. I know the last few times I had to do any kind of production / mastering, it was always specifically requested that the result sounded loud. I did a mastering pass on a split CD to try to make the two bands sound even - and one of the bands asked me to make sure they were louder than the other.

 

[axxessdenied]

You need to mix for HOW people are listening to music. Don't forget the prevalence of people listening and judging on laptop / phone speakers. Your mix needs to slam on that shit so I don't think the loudness wars are over.

 

[TedEH]

You need to mix for HOW people are listening to music.

The problem is that "how" people are listening to music is in playlists mixed in with other songs that are already loud. It's been demonstrated in a whole bunch of places that if you take two songs or two mixes and just play one louder, most people will instinctively call the loud one "better". Therefore, the opposite is also true -> a quiet mix is deemed inferior even if, on paper, it's superior for whatever reasons you might decide that quiet/dynamic is better.

 

[axxessdenied]

Yup... many plugins employ that trick as well. That's why I love using AB_LM.

 

[KailM]

I maintain that this was the reason Opeth's latest stuff wasn't well received. It's good stuff, it just doesn't fit the "modern" standard.

I thought it wasn't well-received because it was uninspired rubbish.

 

[dmchannelitaly]

I can just finish my mix [...] send it to a streaming platform and it'll be played as loudly as regular comercial music?

Not for YouTube. I suggest to do different masters for different platforms. But the #1 rule is: do whatever sounds good to you. Listen to the podcast, because is very informative

 

[dmchannelitaly]

Almost every new release from any big-ish named band I've run into lately has still been mastered louder than it's predecessor,

Metal releases are always loud, but what's the point of doing a slammed master when WE already KNOW that it will be turned down? I get the point when doing a CD master, but damn, after 10 years from the bashed "death magnetic", are we still debating that "loud sounds better"?

 

[dmchannelitaly]

I think a large (majority) portion of Your audience is going to think something is wrong if Your band's recording is quieter overall and actually has dynamics.

Well, our ears can easily adapt to dynamics as we got used to loudness. And I'm not saying that from today, -16dbfs is going to be the new standard for metal records, but we should be aware of those platform numbers, and more important, to serve the music

 

[dmchannelitaly]

The problem is that "how" people are listening to music is in playlists mixed in with other songs that are already loud.

Well, that is no more a problem on spotify, etc. Louder sounds better? I agree, because I got fooled several times, but when two files are loudness matched, you focus on other things, believe me.

 

[TedEH]

what's the point of doing a slammed master when WE already KNOW that it will be turned down?

Turning something down doesn't give back dynamics, it just turns it down.

I think we're confusing the kind of normalizing volume that a streaming platform can do with what happens during the mastering process, which are not the same thing. Even in the odd case that I forget to turn off Spotify's normalizing feature, tracks do not sound equally loud. A platform trying to normalize things can't reverse the process of a loudly mastered track, it can only turn it down, and there's only so much that can be done the other way around to *add* compression to a track before it stops being transparent.