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Mastering your tunes


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...focusing on loudness , to devellop the subject,  I bring you this quote from the TT-DR project creators :

Founder and conceptual father Friedemann Tischmeyer on the functions and aims of the Foundation:

"We believe that music – as an artistic means of expression – should transmit emotions. Nowadays, this is possible only to a limited degree because dynamics — a fundamental part of expressivity — are often missing. On a subconscious level, emotions are expressed by musicians emphasized with a feeling of urgency or insistence. Modern mainstream music sounds like a flatly pressed board being rammed through loudspeakers and uses the greatest possible amount of intrusiveness just as advertising does – as a means of constantly trying to get the listener's attention. In this way, a fundamental aspect of music is lost. Countless consumers who are old enough to remember more dynamic music are not even aware of what is wrong with releases nowadays. The experience of buying music has become frustrating. Who wants to spend money for music that just beats your ears? This process of over-compressing music has been occurring in such a gradual, insidious way that many industry professionals are unable to draw clear boundaries between music that is over-compressed and music that is not. One thing is for sure: when we turn music off because it is getting on our nerves, then it is probably because of a lack of dynamics. Unfortunately, strongly compressed music is also an unpleasant way of generating aggression. We who create music have a certain responsibility with regards to the rest of society."

How did this phenomenon happen?
"The arrival of digital technology has made it technically possible for this process, thereby answering the commercial need of simply wanting to be heard. The principle is: 'Whoever shouts the loudest will be heard.' For labels and radio stations, loudness is the most important criterion in music. And that is where our work begins: We aim to provide qualified information so that people understand that loudness is not a measure of quality in music! There is a great lack of information in this area which has taken on huge proportions: most young people have never heard truly dynamic music played over a good-sounding hi-fi system. I believe that some of them would be so emotionally overwhelmed that they would cry with joy when hearing truly dynamic music under such conditions."

What made you begin this wide-reaching initiative?
"As a mastering engineer I stand right in the crossfire between the detail-work of trying to obtain the best possible sound and the commercial pressures of my customers. Even when a customer knows that the sound suffers when dynamic range is further decreased, they accept this for fear of not being heard. This makes all my efforts involving working on fine nuances of sound practically obsolete. The only choice we are given is to make the loudest possible master with the least amount of sound-quality damage. Of course, that is not a satisfying way of working – all of the leading mastering engineers in the world agree here."

"We therefore believe that our standard will increase the value of music. It is too simplistic to make the MP3 format out to be the scapegoat with regards to the current market situation in the entire music industry. The truth is more complex. The loss of emotional value in music is also a big part of this. We believe that our standard will strengthen the entire music industry. As soon as good-sounding music is once again purchased, musicians and all the creative people involved in making and producing music will profit."

Edited by neurone
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On Gearslutz/Gearspace, former Motown in-house sound engineer Bob Ohlsson often shares his wisdom. He now offers his services as a mastering engineer. I love his posts for the unique, honest perspective they offer. Loudness has always been a consideration, even in the good ol’ days of vinyle and tape.

Obviously, digital brickwall limiting has allowed for higher volume at the expense of transient definition and dynamics / contrast.

But eh, pushing analogue gear is also a form of (soft) clipping. And now, for better and for worse, clipping and limiting is part of the sounds many producers are also seeking. 

I teach electronic music production, and I can tell you that not everyone loves a dynamic mix/master : some miss the suffocating sound of an abused limiter and hard clipping. No matter the educational listening sessions that reveal the sonic shortcomings of a super loud master.

I would love to live in a world in which every device that play sounds would normalize audio to say -23 LUFS Integrated : squashing a mix to death would become an aesthetic decision, not a manifestation of the fear not to be heard. Skrillex would sound tiny in such a world, ah ! But that’s not the world we’re living in.

I’ll even add that, as long as SoundCloud doesn’t normalize loudness, and as long as streaming platforms and IOS/Android don’t force loudness normalization (you can still disable it on Spotify for instance), then we’ll still hear tunes clipping several dBs over 0dB FS and aiming for -5LUFS Integrated.

-14 LUFS Integrated is still quiet for a mastered tunes by current standards (even if it often does sound great). Not so many urban / electronic producers would dare to release music mastered at such level. Not yet. I’m not even talking about pop/rock/metal.

As an artist you can of course refuse loudness war, but that’s a personal, deliberate initiative, not a global trend. Someday, maybe ? That’d be great.

I’ve once read that targeting, on the loudest part of a tune, -10 to -8 LUFS Short Term, with true peaks not going over -.3dB FS was a healthy compromise. I 100% agree. We’re talking Oversteps loudness here IIRC.

This last few years I’ve discovered that limiting done right can actually sound awesome though. Same for clipping. It all depends on how tastefully it’s done. Anyway I digress.

A possible workflow that can be effective when mastering is to set your limiter first. Then to EQ / compress etc… into it (if needed). Depending on what you do, you might eventually get a similar density while reducing the limiter action / obvious soundprint.

Every now and then I’ll use hard clipping to shave the occasional excessive peak, before the the limiter. I’m a huge fan of Voxengo here, Elephant is hands down my favorite limiter, and OVC-128 lets us monitor the clipped portion of the signal : as long as you don’t hear anything remotely melodic in what’s chopped off, your mix should be ok.

While EQing, I’ll suggest to climb up the spectrum, from bottom to top.
More often than not, mixes have plenty of low end, so you might need to sculpt the lows, to lock them in place rather than emphasizing the fundamental of kicks and basses (they already eat enough headroom raw). Work their harmonics instead ? Low shelves are often overlooked but are amazing tools (even instead of an HPF, or to favor mono compatibility with some M/S processing). Once you’ve secured the lows, the rest is often much easier to dial.

I’d say the limiter (because of the way it’ll affect transients and contain the mix) and EQ (to rebalance rather than to correct) are the 2 most crucial tools here.

Compressors are fascinating devices, I love them, but they’re not always needed in a mastering session.

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I managed to get that JT cover master loud without sounding squashed to my ears (there's 2 points where it's getting there, but it's not too egregious).  It's these dense wall of sound mixes where it becomes challenging.  If there's only a few elements and lots of space, getting things loud is usually easy.  But all too often I find myself cramming sound into every possible nook and cranny.

https://themunicipality.bandcamp.com/track/blue-ocean-floor

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