Production Advice

There are plenty of moments to enjoy in this video with veteran mastering engineer Howie Weinberg – not least, proof that mastering engineers really do have a sense of humour !

I want to pick up on just one thing he says almost in passing though, and amplify it. People are always asking “What is mastering”, and it’s a question that lots of people have tried to answer, including me:

What is mastering ?

But Howie’s analogy is short, sweet, and very, very, deep. He says that a mastering engineer is like a photographer who specialises in retouching images in the darkroom to get the very best out of them.

I want to make that statement simpler, and explore the idea in a little more depth.

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Dynamic Range Day is March 20th, 2010

That’s TODAY !

Join us in a day of protest against the CD “Loudness Wars” – more info below

• Show your support – check out the Facebook Event
  and RSVP to say you’ll “attend”
• Use the Twitter hashtag #DYNAMICRANGEDAY tonight at 9pm GMT to try and get this issue “trending” on everyone’s Twitter page
• It’s easy to take part – just SHOUT (type in all caps)
  ALL DAY, EVERYWHERE !
• And when people ask, tell them why you’re shouting

Read the full story here: Dynamic Range Day – The Idea

What are the Loudness Wars ? Watch this video:

Latest News

• 20/04/10 NEW Join us at 9pm GMT on Twitter to try and get this issue trending !
• 20/04/10 NEW Read my Dynamic Range Day post here
• 20/04/10 Dynamic Range Day gets off to a fantastic start, with a huge evening of activity on Twitter
• 19/03/10 Dynamic Range Day is global, and has just started in some time-zones !
• 18/03/10 How to take part in Dynamic Range Day
• 18/03/10 Over 2000 guests confirmed to the Facebook already – still climbing
• 18/03/10 Pleasurize Music Foundation support Dynamic Range Day
• 25/02/10 Dynamic Range Day Banners available for download
• 25/02/10 TurnMeUp.org adds a Dynamic Range Day banner to their front page

Check back soon for more updates

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There’s quite a buzz at the moment about Derek Siver’s talk at TED, Leadership lessons from a dancing guy. If you haven’t already seen it, check out the video above – it’s fantastic !

Despite the great response he got to his idea of the “First Follower”, he immediately decided that he wanted to “give it away” – as he wrote in his post First follower idea is all yours. He wants people to take the idea, and run with it.

And people are – in clever, interesting ways.

For example, Andrew Dubber has come up with what he calls The other way of following first by choosing to give away ideas of his own – one a day, every day throughout March. I advise you to keep an eye on these ideas, I’m pretty sure many of them will be very, very good.

And already, Andrew has his First Follower – well, sort of, anyway. Andrew Wicklander has commited to choosing and implementing one of Andrew’s ideas, within 30 days, as he explains in his post Dance Party.

So, by now you’re probably thinking that I’m going to jump on this bandwagon, too ?

Well… no.

At least, only in the sense that I’m jumping on in yet another, slightly different way.

Because yesterday I had what I think is a really, really good idea.

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Yes, you read that right.

This post will tell you how to get your music really loud. Regardless of the fact that I’ve been interviewed on Radio 4 arguing passionately against the Loudness Wars, even though I’ve always said that the best way to get your song to stand out on the radio is to avoid pushing the level too hard, and despite having written 19 posts on my mastering blog about how bad Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” sounds because it’s unnecessarily loud…

Today I’ll tell you how to make your music loud.

Why ? As a response to this article on MusicRader.com

How to make your music loud

(Subtitled – “Win the loudness war with our step-by-step and audio guide”)

Now immediately I should say – I love MusicRadar. It’s a great site – I highly recommend it. Masses of news, posts, discussion and information for anyone interested in music and music technology. They were one of the first places to pick up and post about how bad Death Magnetic sounded, and link back to my blog. As a result, Wired magazine and the Guardian found the story and started writing about it, and the rest, as they say, is history. The bad press generated by Death Magnetic has done a fantastic job of raising awareness about this issue, and I for one am very happy about that.

So, MusicRadar rocks.

But that post is useless.

Sorry, but there it is. My reasons for saying so though, may not be what you’re expecting.

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Or, the importance of critical listening

Do you trust your hearing ?

Should you ?

There were several factors that led to me putting my foot in my mouth last week – or, my keyboard, perhaps that should be – in a post where I incorrectly announced that Spotify’s “Volume Normalisation” feature makes everything sound terrible (It doesn’t)

This post describes my mistakes, and contains some words of caution for anyone trying to decide if one thing sounds better than another. First I’ll tell you the factors that lead to my wrong conclusions, then I’ll explain how they tripped me up.

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