Question Regarding Match Loudness...

Phantasm · Post by **Phantasm** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 1:33 pm

Hey guys,

I used HarBal in 2004 to master my band's last CD. It's a fine product that made job much easier!

Now that I'm mastering the band's new CD, I've got a question that's a hold-over from back in those days.

I know that to "match loudness" the trick is to read the average volume of my track in Har-Bal then take the difference between that number and -10 and input that number into my limiter.

However, on the last CD, if the song had long, quiet sections (let's say an acoustic intro but a heavy rock outro) then the heavier sections would be smashed too hard and the track would be really loud. On the other side of the spectrum, the heavier songs seemed to be not as loud and powerful as the songs with quiet sections.

Was this just a problem with the Har-Bal version I had at the time that has been corrected, or do you have some suggestions to avoid this problem with my new project?

Thanks!

Phantasm · Post by **Phantasm** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 4:20 pm

Well, it looks like this hasn't been fixed/changed...

I'm getting around it the way I did last time, I'm making "volume test tracks" that cut out the softer parts of each track and using that to get the number to feed the limiter.

Is there a better way to do this?

HarBal · Post by **HarBal** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:34 pm

An algorithm to deal with the case you are referring to is far from simple and we have not attempted it. In cases like those we suggest using your ears along with the toggle reference feature to find the most appropriate level. That is, load up a loud track from your compilation as a reference and play back the loud section of your track. Then adjust the gain so that when you toggle the reference in and out the volume sounds consistent.

Regards,

Paavo.

Hitmaker · Post by **Hitmaker** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:04 am

Hi Phantasm ,

I'd suggest do what you're doing ... although I find it easier to do this in the DAW I'm mastering with ..... Select a range over a representative 'loud' section ... and measure the average RMS of that .. and adjust gain to suit ....
And do similar with all the trax ....
There's a little freebie plug ( RMSBuddy ) just made for the job ... Patch after your last limiter ....

Cheers ,

Evan .