Aeroplane - Caramellas: An anti loudness wars example

[admin]

Just picked up this track the other week although it's been out since 2007.

Very nice italo production which I'm into at the moment.

I took a look at the wave in Cubase as I usually do when examining mixdowns and was shocked to see how much dynamics this one has.


Don't think I've seen too many modern productions with this going on, there almost seems to be no limiting at all evident by the few peaks that stick out.




Averaging about -18db RMS as well. This is opposed to something like Wolfgang Gartner which is clocking in close to -6db RMS, quite a difference.




I've been trying to go with somewhat lower RMS of my own stuff recently although it depends on the track.

[sven hauck]

Excellent topic. I was working on a mix and noticed how some tracks were over compressed while others had almost the same loudness + dynamics without being limited to all hell.

[admin]

There is a diminishing returns on limiting and a lot of people try and fake excitement through excessive use of it. I had it's place though. And even with Aeroplanes stuff not all of it is like this.

The only other example I've seen of a track mastered like this is a few things from 2000 and One.

The key though is that when you just raise the volume of your speakers you'd never know it was 'low' and probably experience the track in a better way due to the extra dynamics and depth.

That being said I can see on some electro stuff it's probably a necessity for it being crushed as it's just part of the sound.

[sven hauck]

What about when a track is mastered like that (with dynamics) and a DJ that is mixing it in has to raise the gain to make it consistent with the other tracks in his mix and barely is able to reach the right level of loudness? Guess that would predicate a necessity to have the track quite loud, no?

[Edel]

i agree that this is an Excellent Topic (a never ending one unfortunately)

i think dance related genre are just getting louder by the week cause
everyone is trying to match levels in the race to loudness. Im not gonna lie,
i love my music loud especially when the music itself is good! BUT i've been asking myself this question lately, how loud does it really need to be? and How Loud is Loud enough for everyone? I think it's a tough question cause everyone else apart from the mastering engineer has a different perspective to Loudness cause there's no meter to show them how loud it really is in the club or while listening to their radio/ipod/cars etc. As far as i can recall
-16db RMS used to sound good and loud enough to my ears in the past but not anymore now. Good music in the past still sound good to me today BUT it just doesn't Loud enough when compared to everything else out now. Unfortunately, i think im one of the many casualties of the Loudness War!

Sven brought up a very good point on DJs playing these Less loud music. I'm a DJ myself (still love the vinyl but CDs mostly now) and most time when i do come across a situation like that id be more then happy to just push the gain level on the indv channl strip up and monitor the level before i even attempt to mix it. However, DJs who i have played with generally at some point in time have resorted to these few self altering methods after complaining that TRK A is good but Its badly mastered, Its too Soft. Not Loud enough. (see the term they use for a track that is not loud = badly mastered) The most commonly used method i've seen here. DJ loads wav (mp3 files these days) into editing program (soundforge/wavelab etc)
Use some preset that says 'Boost Files to 0db' 'More Bass' '+2db Boost' etc, Normalise it and either burn it back to a CD for physical use or load it back into a software platform like Tracktor which is set to an auto gain/normalise mode.

Im not even sure if this is the right way to handling tracks that are not as Loud as what's currently out there but after having seen what my DJ mates are attempting to do themselves, i try and mix my own tracks comparatively as Loud to what's out there at the moment, though i usually tend to go for -10db RMS as a guide which i think is Loud enough.

Im quite certain that im contributing to the loudness war BUT one thing is for sure, im not prepared to let someone else mess about with the final mix after its already been mastered by a professional just cause its a few db lower in level when compared.

Im sure opinions are gonna differ on this but i do advice friends to use the gain knob if something is not 'Loud enough when compared' and for those DJs around the world i hope they are using the gain knob too cause at the rate we're going i think i will be partially deaf by 40!

Fact: My DJ Mentor/Friend is partially Deaf in One Ear and he still is a DJ Today in an established House Club here so im not ruling myself out.

PS: Sorry for the long post