Metallica have a new single out - you can listen to it on YouTube above.
And people are already asking me about the dynamics - in fact I've already seen a blog post claiming that it's more dynamic than their infamous album Death Magnetic:
NEW METALLICA SONG HAS DYNAMICS! The Gear Gods Analysis
So I was excited to listen to it, and this post is just to quickly put my opinion on record since I have a feeling people may be asking me about this fairly often - since I have form on this topic.
So... (more…)
[Updated to reflect Spotify's change in reference loudness]
Music streaming services turn down music that's louder than their reference level.
They also turn up music that's quieter.
And that's a good thing, usually - it improves our listening experience, meaning we don't get "blasted" by loud masters, or strain to hear quieter songs.
But what happens if you submit a song that the loudness management system wants to boost, and it's more dynamic than the platform expects ?
Your song will be either be clipped or limited, or more likely it just won't be turned up as loud as everything else.
If maximum playback loudness isn't your goal, that's not an issue. But if it is, you have a problem.
So where is the sweet spot ? (more…)
In the last couple of weeks we’ve had new releases by Drake, Beyonce, James Blake and Radiohead - and the overall (integrated) loudness of all of them is lower than I'd normally expect. Here are the numbers:
Radiohead -9.9 LUFS
Drake -10.2 LUFS
Beyonce -10.5 LUFS
James Blake -14 LUFS (!)
If you’re paying attention, you’ll have noticed that the number for the Radiohead album is barely different from Beyonce or Drake’s - and in a recent post I said that those numbers were “positively restrained, especially in these genres”. But in the same post, I criticised the new Radiohead single for being unnecessarily loud ! How can both statements be true ? Do I need to eat my words ?
Sadly, no. And this post will show you what I mean. (more…)
I think I'm in love...
I'm listening to the new James Blake album on Apple Music. I saw it in the new releases and just clicked on it, out of curiosity. I haven't really paid any attention to him until now - but WOW.
I've been busy launching this year's Dynamic Range Day competition, and while I work on things like this I'm in the habit of listening to music with my monitors dimmed - that's 12 dB lower than my usual mastering level. Actually, I often listen even quieter than that, because modern music is mostly mastered at such a high level !
But for this album, I found myself tempted to turn it up.
And up.
And UP.
And when I did, it sounded huge. (more…)
