Loudness Penalty

dav | March 8, 2021, 6:41 a.m.

Ever wondered why your track doesn't sound as good when played through a streaming service like Spotify?

I have - but I put it down to me not being very good at mixing and mastering. It turns out there's something called a loudness penalty that might also be having an effect.

Evidently streaming services normalise everything so that you don't get a loud song and then a quiet song (like when you're watching TV and you get the adds that are so much louder than the program). What happens is that the streaming services turn down the volume of loud tracks which can cause issues in playback. I've seen it said that you should master your track to be about -14 LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale - measures average volume of a song over time). The truth is, each streaming service has it's own algorythm for determining their loudness penalty so there is no magic LUFS number.  

I bought a plug in recently that allows me to measure how the loudness penalty would be applied to my track by each streaming service. It also allows me to preview how my track would sound on each service. To use it, simply place it as the last plug in on your track and play through your whole song. They (MeterPlugs) actually have a free service too where you can upload your track and get a loudness penalty reading and preview.  

This raises a few questions:

• should you do separate masters for each service? 

Nearly all mastering engineers are saying that this would be far too time consuming. A practical solution is to aim for a loudness that will work for most services. Some suggest doing two masters - one for streaming and one for sending to clubs and for posting to your website etc. The one you send for promotion (i.e. not for streaming services) can be mastered louder (e.g. -8 LUFS).

• how will this reduced compression/limiting affect the sound of my master?

I've seen some comment that the reduced loudness means you don't need to compress or limit your track so much. This makes it more dynamic and less 'squished' giving you a better sound. Streaky points out that while this could be a good thing for some types of music (e.g. classical, jazz, folk), it might have a negative affect on tracks in a style that need more compression, because heavy compression is actually a part of the sound.

So what's the go? Perhaps you master to style and if you need that heavily compressed sound then turn down the clip gain for sending to a streming service? I'm not sure what the answer is, if you find out - leave me a comment.

D

More info:

Loudness Penalty Plugin Demo with Ian Shepherd

Mastering Audio for Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and Youtube

 

 

 

 

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Writing crap songs

dav | March 1, 2021, 7:10 a.m.

I was watching a YouTube video on the weekend. The presenter suggests a formula for writing an album (LP) as follows:

• Write 30 songs
• Record 20
• Mix 15
• Release 10

I can definitely see the point of using a formula like this - i.e. don't just write 10 songs and release as chances are, not all of them will be of good quality. But it seems to me a heck of a lot of work. Particularly if you have work and other responsibilities. 

Perhaps you can mess with the formula a little but keep the same rough proportions (e.g. write 18, record 12, mix 9, release 6). That seems a little less daunting and would work well for releasing an EP. Maybe it'd help to think about it like this: when you're writing songs you often get a sense of what's worth pursuing and what's not. You might write a verse and chorus and then realise it's probably not your best work and put it aside. In other words, for every song you decide to record you've probably written - or partially written - at least 3 songs or ideas anyway. The truth is, I think most of what I write is utter crap, but it seems to me you gotta get the rubbish out of the way to find the gold.

Well I think you get the idea.... I hope it gives you something to think about. As Tim Molan says in his book The Do-it Youself Labotomy (which I haven't actually read by the way, I just read a review)- crap ideas are fertilizer to help you grow better ones!!!

D

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Sinks Like Hope

dav | Feb. 26, 2021, 4:29 a.m.

New track Sinks Like Hope has been released. 

Listen on your favourite streaming service

This one's really about watching people get older and being overlooked for things like jobs, promotions etc. I wrote it from the point of view of a female TV presenter who knows what's happening and is powerless to do anything about it. Not that I can write as a female - but I can write as an observer and someone who has seen it happen to close friends.

D

 

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