Pleasurize Music Foundation: End the Loudness War

http://www.pleasurizemusic.com/

Support the cause! Get the free meter plug-in. This is badly needed.

From the website:

"The Pleasurize Music Foundation (currently in the process of establishment) began operations in January 2009 and is a nonprofit organization (which will be proofed by the American government/IRS in 2009).
Our aim is to improve the sound quality of music in its various recorded formats – including data compression methods such as MP3 – as well as music destined for radio broadcast.
Only music that provides a positive musical listening experience has real market value. The Foundation's aim is to increase the value of music within the creative production process for the entire music industry."

Signed up :)

Bill

I signed-up also! Although I currently use K Metering System which accomplishes the same goal.

I ran the offline version on my band's CD and it came out as DR10. I think that's a good value, according to the manual.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Peak RMS Filename
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DR10 -0.29 dB -12.18 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 01 - Breathe.wav
DR11 -0.30 dB -13.72 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 02 - Take Me Up.wav
DR10 -0.30 dB -13.30 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 03 - Free.wav
DR9 -0.29 dB -11.29 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 04 - Walk Away.wav
DR11 -0.29 dB -13.36 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 05 - Angel.wav
DR9 -0.32 dB -11.79 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 06 - Show Me.wav
DR10 -0.29 dB -13.08 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 07 - Last Goodbye.wav
DR10 -0.29 dB -11.59 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 08 - Shining Down.wav
DR10 -0.30 dB -13.02 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 09 - Out Of Reach.wav
DR10 -0.29 dB -12.91 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 10 - Nothing Inside.wav
DR10 -0.30 dB -12.13 dB Fell On 3 - Sympathetic Resonance - 11 - Wonder.wav
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of files: 11
Official DR value: DR10

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ORIGINAL: pdlstl

All we are saying...is give peaks a chance.

Priceless!!!

I am all for this. I just wonder how much legs this will have. I must say I never thought a neat tool of this sort would ever come to light. Very useful.

From their "Our Aim" page: http://www.pleasurizemusic.com/en/our-aim

The objective is to revive the willingness to pay for music and therefore to create a healthier basis for all creative participants within the music industry.

We are not surprised by the fact that music listeners are losing the willingness to legally acquire music, because of the fact that contemporary releases are mercilessly over-compressed – a situation that turns off even the biggest music fans.

I can't verify this... I suspect it couldn't be verified in any case... but I don't buy the idea that "music listeners are losing the willingness to legally acquire music" because "contemporary releases are mercilessly over-compressed." Both facts may indeed BE facts. But their relationship...?

From the Agreement page: http://www.pleasurizemusic.com/en/agreement

Dear musicians and music creators: By checking the box "I agree" or "I commit," you are expressing your commitment on a completely voluntary and non-binding basis. This document has NO legal value.

But you are agreeing to a moral commitment and are also taking a public stance in favor of the creation and production of music having certain loudness and quality standards.

Please carefully read each voluntary "obligation" which is linked to an Agreement or Commitment:

* I agree 1 (Music Listener, Musician, Music Producer, Mixing Engineer, Consumer Electronic Industry)
* I agree 2 (Mastering Engineer)
* I agree 3 (MI & Pro Audio Industry)
* I commit 1 (Record Companies – during Phase 1)
* I commit 2 (Record Companies – during Phase 2

And more from the Our Aim page:

Phase one begins officially on April 1, 2009. We will inform music listeners around the world about the advantages of a more dynamic music and show them how to recognize this on recordings.
The DR logo provides a quality label recognizable by everyone inside and outside the industry. The logo is already available on this site for download and license-free use. It exists in several variations and will be visible on the back side of CD jewel cases (on the inlay cards) and tells the consumer how much dynamic range the album contains.
At the same time record companies which have already signed the voluntary Commitment 1 begin to furnish CD releases with a small info sheet (b/w, booklet dimensions) and will print the DR logo on the back of the CD. This way music consumers will be able to see how much music they really have in their shopping cart.

The whole thing sounds kind of boy-scouty and purity-ringy.

It leaves a bad taste in my ears.

Phase one begins officially on April 1, 2009. We will inform music listeners around the world about the advantages of a more dynamic music and show them how to recognize this on recordings.

April first eh?

just realized that none of my tracks will pass the DR-14 benchmark. lol, be careful for what you ask for, it may just come true

ORIGINAL: MatsonMusicBox
1) Their definition that DR14 is "right" somehow - I think it is too limiting (no pun intended). I believe an RMS of around -10, -11 is a good "commercial volume" after mastering and yet will leave good dynamics. (at least for my material). I think that translate to probably a DR9 or DR 10 on their scale.

2) The fact that anything that is not "DR14" basically gets turned down by the record company

If you read a little closer, you'll see that there's a follow-up to this. You don't *have* to stick to DR14 - but if you *don't*, then you have to label the CD with the actual DR value, and also reduce the overall master gain by a corresponding amount, so that the overall perceived volume will be the same as that of a DR14 CD. For example, what they're asking is that if you choose to release a DR7 album, then the overall level should be reduced by 7dB, to match perceived volume with CD's that *do* adhere to DR14.

This is interesting, in that it potentially has a long-term psychological impact on record labels that agree to the terms: I suspect that many people and companies would be reluctant to release a deliberately low-level, low-peak CD when they could, instead, release a full-range CD with better dynamics that will still have the same perceived volume.

However, I'm not personally sold on the concept yet. The movement and the organization will only be as strong as their contingency, and that contingency's adherence to the standard. If this becomes "the norm," then I see no reason not to go with it; but if it's not widely adopted, then DR14 does seem like an extreme limitation, given market tendencies. They even indicate the Norah Jones material, which clocks in at DR9 (not DR14) as being a nice balance of dynamics and marketability.

The so-called loudness wars are about aesthetic standards.

To criticize the "lack of dynamics" in any given piece of music, or category of music, or music in general, is to hold that music against a set of aesthetic standards.

The Pleasurizing Music Foundation is about establishing a set of aesthetic standards. It's right there in their name.

The use of a 'DR number' label is about enforcing a set of aesthetic standards.

To invoke a "moral commitment" to live up to a "public stance" one took to follow a set of aesthetic standards is about enforcing those aesthetic standards with emotional blackmail; if that's too harsh a word, call it guilt-tripping. Or peer pressure.

The attempt to establish and enforce aesthetic standards is about as unaesthetic as it gets.

I'm sure this movement will find many followers. I'd be very surprised if it got anywhere. It's all so incredibly prissy.

And that assumes this movement is not just an April Fool's joke, and a publicity move for the company behind the DR measurements (whose concern for aesthetic standards didn't keep them from making a VST that takes up 3/4 of the vertical height of a 1920x1200 monitor.)

Marah,

I like the way you think!!!

mike

ORIGINAL: Marah
And that assumes this movement is not just an April Fool's joke

I'm starting to think you might be right about this... the more I read on the website, the more it sounds like some of their statements might be inventions rather than facts.

For example: statements like "These facts have been carefully confirmed and scientifically proven" are *usually* footnoted or credited. There's no explanation on the PMF website of what research they're citing, or its legitimacy. Statements like "The Dynamic Range process of the Pleasurize Music Foundation eliminates this problem completely so that distortion and artifacts no longer occur when files are encoded into standard data compression formats" have no further explanation or development.

I see three possibilities:

A) It's a hoax
B) Their research, principles, and assertions are valid and proven, but whoever is presenting the arguments online is an amateur at thesis defense
OR
C) They truly think they're right, but the principles are *not* in fact proven.

It'll be interesting to see how this develops. I'm not specifically against it at this point, but I'm also not sold.

[feels idea for fake commercial coming up]

Rising levels .... global earwarming ... Greenpeaks.

WHAT ????

I CANT HEAR YOU???