aaa how loud? - Music techology forums
skin: 1 2 3 4 |  Login | Join Dancetech |

dancetech forums

23-Apr-2024

Info-line:   [synths]    [sampler]    [drumbox]    [effects]    [mixers]     [mics]     [monitors]    [pc-h/ware]    [pc-s/ware]    [plugins]    -    [links]    [tips]

Search forums House rules Live chat Login to access your admin About dancetech forums Forum home Start a new topic

Forums   -   Music techology

Subject: how loud?


Pages: 1 2


Original Message 1/16             13-Sep-07  @  12:16 PM     Edit: 13-Sep-07  |  12:19 PM   -   how loud should it be?

rags .aka. welder

Posts: 649

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



I know this is a huge debate, if we should make our tracks as loud as possible "to be able to compete", but frakly I don't want to compete with anyone, so I render this complicated question to a simple one:

What is the loudness with you - as a listener - would be happy with? To me the -8 dB RMS levels in commercial pop are just ridiculous, I would be more happy with -11, but there is still too much being lost with that much of limiting.



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 2/16             13-Sep-07  @  03:01 PM   -   RE: how loud?

k

Posts: 12353

Link?:  Link

File?:  No file



but... loud is loud in terms of overall volume cos it can just be turned down. Perhaps what you mean is limited dynamic range which can wreck some material.. in tha t respect, some material it works on, some not imo

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 3/16             13-Sep-07  @  07:02 PM   -   RE: how loud?

rags .aka. welder

Posts: 649

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



I mean how much dynamic range is worth sacrificing? But at the end it all translates into percieved loudness, because the more I turn the limiter on, the less dynamic range I have left.

To put the question differently, do you know any recent stuff out there, that seems to be just right when it comes to the dynamics/loudness tradeoff (preferably similar stuff to what I usually make, ie. experimental/idm)



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 4/16             13-Sep-07  @  08:06 PM   -   RE: how loud?

malkytrance

Posts: 315

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



Hmm this loudness thing is getting mad, i find you need to add some ludicrous 10 db or more to
bring it in line with some commercial stuff, but ive started to just do gentle limiting compression
stuff just to keep quiet bits quiet and retain depth, I hope it goes away soon coz its a stupid thing
thats just ego based, my tracks louder than yours, yeah but my dads tracks louder than your
loud track, butr theres this guy down the pub sezs hes made the loudest track in this spiral arm
ect.

As for good recent tunes that sound similar to yours ill have a look around to see if some
comparisons can be made, wierd thing is there r a lot of older stuff that sounds perfect and dont
sound to quiet.

I expect though someone will bring out a new plugin called "BIG UP YER MUSIC" which adds
160 db to the mix with extra bass more mid and more highs without overloading and everyone
will use that, maybe when we reach the wall we will get a reversal and end up with a new trend ,
mixes so quiet they do not light up the first bar/led of you amp/channel strip and new albums
called"The Sonics of Silence" so quiet you need a pre amp to your amp before you can here it,
all at 24bit mind you lol
Malk

___________________________________

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S.Thompson -



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 5/16             13-Sep-07  @  09:30 PM   -   RE: how loud?

rags .aka. welder

Posts: 649

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



quote
new albums
called"The Sonics of Silence" so quiet you need a pre amp to your amp before you can here it,
all at 24bit mind you lol




Gentle limiting compression, hmmm, you could talk a ittle bit more about that I'm all ears!
(threshold, ratio, is it any kind of limiter/compressor combo, or just a limiter, is it multiband, etc...)



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 6/16             14-Sep-07  @  05:10 PM   -   RE: how loud?

k

Posts: 12353

Link?:  Link

File?:  No file



well getting the compression right for the loud items as you mix goes a long way to solving this, but yeah, loud is best rules for alot of genres... i spose it's down to radio & tv being the prevalent listening source

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 7/16             18-Sep-07  @  02:03 PM   -   RE: how loud?

malkytrance

Posts: 315

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



Ive got no real settings that are right or wrong, i just try and use multiband to adjust the balance
of bass, mid and high, and it is possible to gentle squeeze stuff and sound ok, limiting well you
can use Logic pros adaptive limiter which allows scary amounts of limiting and you can get it
real loud.

But iam no mastering expert and your mix to start with really dictates what can be done after, its
funny simply knowledge makes better mixes, better mixes master better and mastered tracks
sound good if they retain some dynamics, but remember the average punter now listens to
compressed audio with reduced dynamic range, and most people dont give a rats arse how or
what was done to a track, just that they like it. I know people who would rather listen to their all in
one stereo with bass on full and the loudness button on, and if it distorts they luv it its percieved
as being louder better give me more.

Try some experiments to see how far you can go on making it louder some tracks work great,
others it totaly messes up, and remember pro mastering houses do it so much better but only if
the mix was perfect in the first place, home mixes rarely sound that much better unless you got
a perfect studio, just shows up the areas you need treat, ive heard stuff in the charts which has
been terribly recorded but it still sold loads!

Malk

___________________________________

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S.Thompson -



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 8/16             18-Sep-07  @  02:39 PM   -   RE: how loud?

malkytrance

Posts: 315

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



I (cough) recorded some of your ninja track and you can add quite a lot more with limiting or
sonalksis's compressor, best one mind you was psp vintage warmer plug it in turn the big knob
add bass and mid to taste off u go, great plugin.You can always limit after the psp as well if it will
take it.
will delete file Rags.
all gone
Malk

___________________________________

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S.Thompson -



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 9/16             18-Sep-07  @  02:40 PM   -   RE: how loud?

malkytrance

Posts: 315

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



Cool Track btw well done
Malk

___________________________________

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S.Thompson -



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Message 10/16             19-Sep-07  @  06:49 PM   -   RE: how loud?

rags .aka. welder

Posts: 649

Link?: Link

File?:  No file



Cheers Malk!

Don't worry about those files... and thanks for the props. Now I have experimented a little bit and Vintage Warmer 2 is very powerful indeed. The trick seems to be to get the ratio between compression and limiting right (and to set the time constants)... I was able to get very loud levels out of my stuff, on the other hand things still get 1-dimensional sooner or later, but that is lack of dynamics I guess...

Thing is I really liked about VW2 was how you can add nonlinear coloration to the individual frequency bands.

On the other hand think I prefer the sound of the Elephant, it sounds less "clippy", less fatiguing because it doesn't introduce any distortion. But it is only forgiving up to a point... and if you push it a little bit more the sound just collapses...

I have been playing around with multiband compression in the last few days, I won't dare to say I have mastered it, but I could get some pretty nice results with 5 bands. Somehow it seems like the multiband compression makes the life of the limiter easier, I guess it is the "dynamics reduction in two steps is always more transparent than in one step" thing...



[ back to forum ]              [quote]

Pages: 1 2

There are 16 total messages for this topic





Reply to Thread

You need to register/login to use the forum.

Click here  to Signup or Login !

[you'll be brought right back to this point after signing up]



Back to Forum





Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)