Question about Norah Jones' "Sunshine"

[EddieRay]

I heard this on the radio this morning and listened real close. It seemed to me that whenever Norah's vocal line started everything else was "pushed back" volume-wise. I know that DJs/announcers use dynamics processing so that when they speak any music playing at that time is lowered in volume. But I didn't think artists used it so prominently. Is it possible that this trick was accomplished by the radio station during the broadcast?

 

[dachay2tnr]

It's called "ducking." I don't know if that's what was done on that particular record, but it's not uncommon.

 

[TexRoadkill]

It's probably the result of current mastering practices gone amuck. Like everything else the album was mastered for maximum volume. If it was mixed with the vocals pretty hot then whenever they kick in it will trigger the mastering limiter and lower the overall volume. The music during the vocals will be relatively lower then it is during the musical breaks.

 

[volltreffer]

... and the radio stations use 'mastering processors' in addition to get the sound more 'radio-ready', which in fact worsens the symptom. I think it was 'trouble' from pink that always made me think of something breaking in my car, until I realized it was some background stuff being raised horribly in volume by their multiband comp...

aXel