Dynamic Range Day 2019 • Friday March 29th

Today is Dynamic Range Day!


"The “Loudness War” is built on the idea that “louder is better”. However this concept is fatally flawed. The goal of Dynamic Range Day is to reveal this flaw and spread an alternative message:

Dynamic music sounds better

You don’t need to compete in the “Loudness War”. In fact in the 21st Century your music can gain a competitive advantage – not by being “louder”, but more dynamic. To hear this simple secret in action, click here."


Watch the live webcast here:




...and there's more:

"Also watch out for occasional live Facebook videos through the day – and, join me on Lij Shaw’s Recording Studio Rockstars channel along with a few other audio blogging, podcasting and Youtuber friends for an informal discussion about the topic – you can watch it live here."


"The Dynamic Range Day Award is given annually to a great-sounding, dynamic album. The aim of the award is to highlight popular releases which sound great and haven’t been “smashed”."

The 2019 shortlist
Jon Hopkins – ‘Singularity’
Motorpsycho – ‘The Crucible’
Omnium Gatherum – ‘The Burning Cold’
Mark Knopfler – ‘Down The Road Wherever’
Gessafelstein – ‘Hyperion’
Olafar Arnalds – ‘Singularity’
Marillion – ‘All One Tonight’
Desecravity – ‘Anathema’
Nils Frahm – ‘All Melody’


Source: Dynamic Range Day

 

I hate to say this, but after 18 years of beating the drum about this issue, only a tiny handful of artists and engineers have gotten the message, and that lesson has only been applied to some high-profile reissues. The majority of the artists and engineers are still squashing the music, and the 99.9% of the listening public still don't know and don't care. We are only preaching to the choir at this point. I wish it were different.

 

Never give up!

>>>

Bob Ludwig on the mastering of Avenged Sevenfold's 'The Stage' (2017 interview):

"...a few days later, and I almost timed it to the hour, they came back to me nervous that it wouldn't be as impressively loud as their peers' recording...so I mastered a version that was kind of a split difference...so they were still on the fence. And then I sent them the Loudness War YouTube video that Matt Mayfield so wonderfully made years ago that in two minutes sums up the Loudness War in a way that anybody can understand...and as soon as they saw that they came back to me and went with my most dynamic version. So that's what was released, including the singles."

How awesome it that!

...so Bob Ludwig convinced the band to choose the most dynamic version by sending them this video:

 

Little did Paul McCartney ever realize that his "Figure Of Eight" would become the poster child for the "loudness wars" one day. Too bad no one showed it to him when he did his "Memory Almost Full" album.

 

This album was released in February...great album & dynamic range:

Benny Sings - City Pop
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Peak RMS Filename
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR11 -0.11 dB -13.39 dB 01 - Everything I Know.mp3
DR10 -0.06 dB -11.89 dB 02 - Familiar.mp3
DR9 -0.34 dB -11.33 dB 03 - Not Enough.mp3
DR11 -0.03 dB -12.32 dB 04 - Nakemeguro (feat. Faberyayo).mp3
DR11 over -13.23 dB 05 - Duplicate.mp3
DR11 over -12.40 dB 06 - Late At Night (feat. Mocky).mp3
DR11 -0.96 dB -14.19 dB 07 - Summerlude.mp3
DR13 -0.07 dB -14.65 dB 08 - So Far So Good.mp3
DR9 over -11.07 dB 09 - Dreamin'.mp3
DR10 -0.17 dB -12.43 dB 10 - My World (feat. Cornelius).mp3
DR11 over -12.00 dB 11 - Softly (Tokyo).mp3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of files: 11
Official DR value: DR11





"Tim van Berkestijn, better known by his stage name Benny Sings, is a Dutch pop artist who has released albums on the Dox label. Since 2003, he has produced four studio albums and one live album."

Benny Sings - Wikipedia

 

I'm sorry, but that's got to be the most confusing demonstration of Loudness War affects on sound quality I've ever seen. Also I've already viewed that video several years ago stumbling on it and saw no point to it.

I kept going back and forth trying to A/B those snare hits and I was expecting harmonic distortion where "Eh" timbre of the snare ring turns into "AAH". Didn't happen. It just shows what it sounds like louder. I still don't get the last part where the waveform is reduced to be more quieter where it shows the red spikes of the snare hits that presumably are missing but I don't hear that. I hear a quieter sounding version.

Why did they make it quieter with software? Analog slider doesn't quite behave the same in my experience. I had to raise the volume slider on my MacMini listening on quality Sony headphones to bring it back to what it sounded like at the beginning. See how convoluted and confusing it is?

This video really demonstrates stunted punch of the snare from brickwalling...

 

Thread relevance ??

 

It's Dynamic Range Day so I posted a recent example of an album with great dynamic range.

Righty?...

 

Shame that the album still has tracks that have clipping, and could have even been more dynamic.

 

Steven Wilson has always been a contender for this award each year, winning at least once, but has no release this year

 

STORMWATCH commeth!!

 

The vast majority of listeners in the 21st century consume music in noisy, less-than-ideal environments: In the car, on small computer speakers, and through earbuds on the elliptical machine. These environments are not conducive to in-depth listening, and dynamic range does not help in these situations. I don't like it any more than you do, but that's where we are now.

 

What has really made it confusing is that it's a mixed bag on how dynamic range is defined audibly as demonstrated in the YouTube postings here including the one I posted.

The timbre of the punch of a snare hit is altered by other factors not having anything to do with brickwalling. On top of that the snare hit samples come off as having been mixed and mastered by someone who doesn't know what a real snare hit sounds like which often sounds artificial especially in it's brightness and noise ridden high frequency textures. I have never heard a performance of a band where the snare hit is as loud as the vocals or other instruments.We never get to hear the raw audio before the audio engineers get their hands on it. It might sound better. Who knows?

High frequencies in sounds like this are always going to be perceived to be louder, a human perception fact of life that can't be measured by RMS numbers.

 

...and the winner is:

Gessafelstein – ‘Hyperion’

Ian Shepherd talks about it here >>> click


Bob Ludwig mastered the album.


Gesaffelstein - Hyperion
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR Peak RMS Filename
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR9 -3.63 dB -14.33 dB 01 - Hyperion.mp3
DR13 over -14.41 dB 02 - Reset.mp3
DR9 -1.52 dB -12.03 dB 03 - Lost in the Fire.mp3
DR11 -0.12 dB -12.72 dB 04 - Ever Now.mp3
DR10 -0.37 dB -12.68 dB 05 - Blast Off.mp3
DR11 over -13.35 dB 06 - So Bad.mp3
DR12 over -14.64 dB 07 - Forever.mp3
DR11 -0.17 dB -12.57 dB 08 - Vortex.mp3
DR9 -0.10 dB -11.38 dB 09 - Memora.mp3
DR11 over -14.84 dB 10 - Humanity Gone.mp3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of files: 10
Official DR value: DR11