mastering and why the -1dBFS recommendation

[emrr]

I've noted these changes at times but hadn't done a real comparison on a hot WAV master in awhile. Seeing these results suggests -1.5dBFS is even better.

Look at sample peak level and possible (oh for sure) clipped samples, and the amount they rise with conversion. Note RMS actually goes DOWN slightly. Sample rate conversion creates these level artifacts too, but not quite as dramatic. Peak levels bear little relationship with RMS or LUFS.

Kind of shocking, and given streaming will turn a file like this down, it's pointless to have high peak levels. It's already clipped more heavily if the conversion is before the stream leveling, which I'd ASSume to be the case for storage purposes.


I've heard this conversion clipping on some hot masters from my shop, and it bugs the shit out of me....no reason for a clean sounding acoustic record to have mastering induced clipping artifacts.

I'm hoping this will get a revision with lower peak levels. The track is a fairly dynamic live performance, so it's also kinda dumb the RMS is pushed so hard. It's already plenty damn loud before mastering, loud enough for streaming to turn it down already.

Hey, if pressing CD's knock yerself out with this hot peak level shit. Otherwise...you're fired if I have any say.


mastered WAV:

256K conversion:

128K conversion:

 

[thomasdf]

interesting for sure, thanks Doug ! Many thought the loudness war was over, it is absolutely not unfortunately

 

[Gold]

It helps if you understand the music, the genre and the audience for the music. Just like there is no need to slam a clean acoustic performance if you don't slam a pop or rap record it's going to get kicked back. Like I say, louder is always better, until it's not. That said this just looks sloppy.

 

[emrr]

I stuck some readings from some various converters and conversion settings here:

https://realgearonline.com/post/371623/thread

 

[fragletrollet]

Any of you tried the Adaptr Audio plugins like Streamliner:

https://adptraudio.com/product/streamliner/

To get some relevant goals loudness wise, with platform in mind.

I know I feel better prepared to gigs with quite a bit hotter masters than the -14 lufs these platforms normalize your audio to. So, separate masters; dynamic one for release, and pumpy -9 lufs for the dancefloor.

But then I play techno

 

[emrr]

The loudness module in RX is ok, and now that I've used it some I hear it everywhere.

 

[kags]

I use 1dB TP because when a wav file is converted to a lossy version the level goes up a few tenths of a dB or more (possibly over 1 dB) do to the distortion added to the signal during the encoding. The 1 dB of headroom on the .wav master helps the mp3/AAC sound less shitty after conversion.

The headroom, in some cases, may also help consumer devices DAC stay away from clipping, too.