Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
This is where the past comes to haunt you...
About a dozen or so years ago (geez, it was closer to 15), I was being interviewed for some music mag. The question came up: "Do you think there should be a standard for volume like the film industry has?"
Me, being fairly conservative on such things, said "absolutely not."
But that was me being naive and not thinking that people would actually do what they're doing now. The abhorrent sounding damage that they're willingly subjecting their own recordings to. It's absolutely amazing what people will sacrifice just to keep up with the Joneses.
I'd *kill* (maybe...) to have a music standard now. IMO? Around -16 to -14dBRMS. That seems to be an almost universal point where dynamics and punch start to go down, distortion starts to go up, clarity starts to suffer, focus starts to blur - and go figure - That's where your converters are probably calibrated to line level. DUH!!! Which is why it was always a good spot to be 15 years ago!!! And guess what else - 1.23vRMS 15 years ago is exactly the same as 1.23vRMS is today! Does anyone think that the circuitry we're running these unbelievably hot signals into can work with these insane voltages without the audio suffering because of it?
Find me the guy who - IF there were a standard - would purposefully mix something to have a crest of 8dB and then turn it down 6-7dB to keep it at the standard. Honestly - Can ANYONE here say they'd do that? Or would you take advantage of a 15dB crest instead? Heck, half the rock/pop mixes out there naturally have a crest around 15-18dB in the first place!!! BEFORE any buss processing. I wonder why...
GOD!!! It would be SO EASY to make music sound great again. We've got technology at our fingertips that people a generation ago couldn't even imagine. And what are we doing with it? Trying to piss farther than the next guy. It's ridiculous. Honest - It occasionally makes me want to just quit. People can make recordings with fidelity and clarity that couldn't be touched 20 years ago. Instead, they're "recording as hot as they can without clipping" (which is another freakishly stupid "first day of class" rookie mistake if there ever was one) and ramming recordings into limiters to make them almost unlistenable on even the best systems with the *most* available headroom - Not even mentioning the crappy consumer systems and iPods and such that fall apart long before they could ever reach the sustained levels asked of them.
And without a doubt - Without any question at all - as mentioned in here somewhere a few posts back, I'll crank up a great recording so loud that God will call complaining and tell me to turn it down. But some of these smashed, cruddy recordings that are coming out now? Forget it. You can't listen to those at loud levels. I refuse to damage my hearing and my gear for that.
[/RANT - Sorry...]
About a dozen or so years ago (geez, it was closer to 15), I was being interviewed for some music mag. The question came up: "Do you think there should be a standard for volume like the film industry has?"
Me, being fairly conservative on such things, said "absolutely not."
But that was me being naive and not thinking that people would actually do what they're doing now. The abhorrent sounding damage that they're willingly subjecting their own recordings to. It's absolutely amazing what people will sacrifice just to keep up with the Joneses.
I'd *kill* (maybe...) to have a music standard now. IMO? Around -16 to -14dBRMS. That seems to be an almost universal point where dynamics and punch start to go down, distortion starts to go up, clarity starts to suffer, focus starts to blur - and go figure - That's where your converters are probably calibrated to line level. DUH!!! Which is why it was always a good spot to be 15 years ago!!! And guess what else - 1.23vRMS 15 years ago is exactly the same as 1.23vRMS is today! Does anyone think that the circuitry we're running these unbelievably hot signals into can work with these insane voltages without the audio suffering because of it?
Find me the guy who - IF there were a standard - would purposefully mix something to have a crest of 8dB and then turn it down 6-7dB to keep it at the standard. Honestly - Can ANYONE here say they'd do that? Or would you take advantage of a 15dB crest instead? Heck, half the rock/pop mixes out there naturally have a crest around 15-18dB in the first place!!! BEFORE any buss processing. I wonder why...
GOD!!! It would be SO EASY to make music sound great again. We've got technology at our fingertips that people a generation ago couldn't even imagine. And what are we doing with it? Trying to piss farther than the next guy. It's ridiculous. Honest - It occasionally makes me want to just quit. People can make recordings with fidelity and clarity that couldn't be touched 20 years ago. Instead, they're "recording as hot as they can without clipping" (which is another freakishly stupid "first day of class" rookie mistake if there ever was one) and ramming recordings into limiters to make them almost unlistenable on even the best systems with the *most* available headroom - Not even mentioning the crappy consumer systems and iPods and such that fall apart long before they could ever reach the sustained levels asked of them.
And without a doubt - Without any question at all - as mentioned in here somewhere a few posts back, I'll crank up a great recording so loud that God will call complaining and tell me to turn it down. But some of these smashed, cruddy recordings that are coming out now? Forget it. You can't listen to those at loud levels. I refuse to damage my hearing and my gear for that.
[/RANT - Sorry...]