new style of music to mix/master

[mxomtk2k]

Paavo,


This is a shame to hear, the last style of music you would ever think of suffering this fate. Who in their right mind would consider that the right approach?
I am certainly doing my part on the front line fighting the 'war of loudness'. Nothing goes past -11db (Style dependent, can be down to -14db) and yet if I don't mention it may sound a little quiter, customers don't seem to even notice but if I do mention it, it becomes a hot topic I have to defend.

I came up with a theory on Metallica's latest abortion, Death Magnetic. (musically speaking its a great album, production was unforgivable!)
These guys are known worldwide for stirring the pot in public to help make a point where it is nesessary even if means the end of Metallica, like the Napster saga for instance, that almost ended them. So what better way to fight the war than to put an album out there that is so bad that even the most untrained ear can hear it. There is an online pitition made by the general public, "should Metallica remix, remaster?" last time i looked 5000 general people said no, 100,000 people had said yes! They have singlehandedly made this more public than anyone else has managed to achieve, whether they meant to or not really
I do think that shows progress in the right direction as the metal industry is the worst for it by far.
Thanks,

Nigel.

[HarBal]

I am certainly doing my part on the front line fighting the 'war of loudness'. Nothing goes past -11db (Style dependent, can be down to -14db) and yet if I don't mention it may sound a little quiter, customers don't seem to even notice but if I do mention it, it becomes a hot topic I have to defend.

I'm greatful you're trying to educate your clients.

I find anything over -13dB (full wave square reference) is fighting a loosing battle. I find doing A/B listening tests between the same track at -13dB and -10dB I don't notice an appreciable difference in loudness but I do notice an appreciable difference in size and clarity. The -10dB sounds tiny and -13dB sounds big. That is from the inevitable consequence of major dynamic range reduction through over-limiting.

All anyone needs to do is go back to the general rule of thumb approach - limiting should occur infrequently. If the limiter is cutting back all the time then you are mastering at too high a level. Sadly, most new popular releases have the limiter going 95% of the time, intead of the 5% of the time it should be!

I happened to show a friend my development version of har-bal. In the process, he asked why the peak time line of the "foo fighters" track I was showing him was flat-lining. When I explained to him that it was severe limiting in the aid of making it sound loud, he was horrified that they actually do that! It seems the general public are blissfully ignorant of how the music industry destroys its product! He couldn't understand the motivation for it, or why it was such a big deal having to turn up the volume a bit.

Perhaps if CD players and mp3s had level meters over the last 10 years perhaps none of this would have ever happened. If they did, I'm sure the buying public would have started questioning why the meter seems to be moving less and less for every new release...

cheers,


Paavo.