• Techniques
  • Pleasurize Music Foundation: End the Loudness War (p.6)
2009/08/04 23:52:39
jayson
Hmmm ... the plug in is not free anymore.  You need to donating $30 a year to become an "Active Member".  That's not going to attract people to the cause. 

Cheers,

jayson 
2009/08/05 10:11:38
wintaper
Saw that too - $30 now to join. Guess they didn't count on server and network access fees. The site is kinda cheesy actually. 

If you really wanna hear slammin' levels, just slap on "Smooth" off Santana's Superstition CD. Gotta be the loudest recorded track I've ever heard.
As for the plugin, RME Digicheck does pretty much the same thing, as do several others.

-Dan

2009/08/05 12:59:23
slartabartfast
The interesting thing to me about this page (aside from the politics and questions about the funding) is the graphic animation that shows the shrinking dynamic range over the decades. Many people do not realize that one of the major jobs of the mastering engineer in the days of vinyl was to set levels that would not destroy the master by cutting across to the next groove. Too much loudness just ate too much recoding medium. To some extent excess loudness/insufficient dynamic range reflects the limits and capabilities of the recording media, and the music choice and listening habits of the people who buy the media. In my youth during the brief period of the so-called folk revival, popular singers chose to enunciate their words, and dispense with ear-slamming percussion tracks in order to communicate. You do not hear much about the loudness wars from classical music critics today. People who buy that kind of music usually listen to it on better systems in quieter places, and do not do a lot of drinking and talking while listening. People who want to put the party in their pocket and listen to the beat through ear buds while driving with the top down are looking for a different experience. Measuring the average dynamic range of popular music over time says more about what music is popular than about compression technology.
2009/08/05 13:13:44
slartabartfast
Also from the site:

Generally, music with little or no dynamics is better suited for listening situations with loud ambient sound levels because quieter passages are masked by the louder background noises. However, this cannot and must not be an argument in favor of only producing and mastering music for use in cars with noisy environments.
In this case it makes sense to use modern DSP chip circuitry which provide automobiles with a compression system which is speed-dependent. This is a promising field for the consumer electronics industry for bringing new car hi-fi products on the market. Dolby Volume is a technology that already exists for such a use.

Scroll down to the list of sponsors for the foundation and guess if any of them are marketing or developing such technology.

2009/08/05 16:03:27
ambientNRG
slartabartfast


Also from the site:

Generally, music with little or no dynamics is better suited for listening situations with loud ambient sound levels because quieter passages are masked by the louder background noises. However, this cannot and must not be an argument in favor of only producing and mastering music for use in cars with noisy environments.
In this case it makes sense to use modern DSP chip circuitry which provide automobiles with a compression system which is speed-dependent. This is a promising field for the consumer electronics industry for bringing new car hi-fi products on the market. Dolby Volume is a technology that already exists for such a use.

Scroll down to the list of sponsors for the foundation and guess if any of them are marketing or developing such technology.

I like the car auto volume idea. several years back, Lotus introduced a car noise sensor that would measure the noise in the car and cancel it by producing a similar waveform (phase cancellation). That sensor can also be used to measure the the volume increase.

The $30 is a bad idea, esp so early when they should be trying to get more ppl signed up. I wonder if I can share my plugin for non-profit use?

2009/08/05 17:38:55
DonM

Give peaks a chance


LOL literally.  I will quote you on this one.

-D
2009/08/06 06:57:54
topdown
Only music that provides a positive musical listening experience has real market value.

thats absolute nonsense. the "reasons" for their "aims" are completely moronic. sorry.

and tends to make the listener aggressive after a certain amount of time spent listening to it.

come on, some one has serious conspiracy theory issues ...
2009/08/06 11:07:00
Danny Danzi
John, did you have to donate to get the plug? I signed up but I can't see any place to download. Any help would be appreciated...thanks! ;)
2009/08/06 14:24:48
Steve E
Various criticisms have been voiced, as you would expect, over the Pleasurize music foundation’s campaign on this forum. Par for the course. But perhaps a little unjustified. When people passionately feel a situation is running out of control their actions to change it often appear to be somewhat extreme, yet their aim is still pure & no less valiant.
As to whether it could really change things depends solely on the organisations ability in gaining a Herculean membership. But even then its effect could still be relatively minimal.
You see there is one almost insurmountable barrier, and it’s known as… human nature.
The vast majority of the public have no idea of what we’re talking about. And even if  hours where spent explaining the merits of true dynamics against maximizers, before  given the choice between a expertly maximized track or a un-maximized dynamic track, they would still choose the former as their preferred version. This is not a plebeian, but known psychological reaction. 
The record companies know this, a large number of producers therefore stick to this,  artists & bands believe their careers rely on it, & therefore money, at the end of the day, will always win over dynamics. Music is a business.
 
Anyway, in at least offering an option I hope Pleasurize do convert some people. 
2009/08/06 16:00:36
bitflipper
I've been using both the offline utility and the VST version for several months now. It's definitely a useful tool, but I wouldn't trust it to be my sole arbiter of dynamic quality.

I have read that its calculation is based on the loudest 20% of the song. The theory is that this will eliminate fade-ins, fade-outs and full rests from skewing the numbers.

Unfortunately, it also means that if you have a song that intentionally super-compresses the big finale, the song will rank low on the DR scale, even though the song might be quite dynamic overall.

My own stuff sounds most satisfying with a DR rating of 10 or 11, which, according to the Pleasure Police, is (moderately) overcompressed. But it's an artistic judgment, and I'm finding that attempting to establish a numeric target for all music is probably a losing proposition.

Some of my favorite music (both my own and commercial recordings) comes in at 14. But other favorites come in at 8. I wouldn't want to see a standard in which music exceeding some "optimal" DR level would require a warning sticker.
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