Here's the funny thing, though - I never really listened to it... until now.
At first, they applied it to everything – which was bad. Then, they switched it off, which was better - unless you were a subscriber and had chosen the "Loud" option in the preferences.
I wrote about it at the time, and always highlighted this nuance – but because it only affects less than 1% of music streaming users and I'm not a big fan of loudness, I never really paid the limiter itself much attention.
Until recently though, when Ian Kerr from MeterPlugs told me he'd been able to emulate Spotify's limiter for the new version of our Loudness Penalty plugin.
I knew the limiter was very simple and didn't sound great... but as it turns out, I had no idea.
To hear it for yourself, check out the video above.
Foo Fighters just released their new album "Your Favourite Toy", and right away I started seeing loads of people talking about how distorted it sounds. I even saw people saying it sounded more distorted than Death Magnetic.
I took a listen and asked if people would like me to make a video, and they said "Yes", so here it is - take a listen for yourself and make your own mind up !
Is the album too distorted ? Or is the distortion appropriate to convey the intensity and emotion of the material ?
Leave a comment on YouTube and let me know what you think !
The Equal LUFS Illusion
I'm seeing this question all the time recently:
"I hit the LUFS target, but my mixes still sound smaller than the pros - WTF?!"
Which seems like a perfectly reasonable question, right ? LUFS measure loudness, so just match the LUFS to the appropriate target and you're good to go… why wouldn't it work ?
Everyone is talking about AI, especially in mastering.
And there are certainly some exciting developments and interesting new products.
But can AI really take the place of a human engineer ?
I recently had the chance to test this idea for myself, using an actual mastering project, and in the video above I show you what I found, and the conclusions I drew from it.
Take a look, the results may surprise you !
Automate AFTER limiting ??
I just watched an interesting video that Drew Oliver made for iZotope, where he notices a "peak level bump" in a recent release, and suggests it might be a deliberate production strategy.
And maybe he's right, but I assumed something very different when I saw what he was talking about – and in fact I can think of several other possible explanations, too.
I thought you might be interested, so I made a video explaining my thoughts. Take a look and let me know what you think ! And be sure to check out the original video - the section I'm commenting on starts @ 12:31
