Justin Myles - Shortened arrangement (mix now posted)

[The_Metallurgist]

You ripped Till a new one about a master that sounded good, sure it was hot and compressed sounding, it still had dynamics

i think you're referring to this mix here?
http://www.discussion.cambridge-mt.com/s...6#pid38036

some "loudness war" statistics for you, which i've obtained from his mix:

Integrated loudness -6.4LUFS
Momentary Loudness -4.3
Short term loudness -4.7
True Peak +1.2

the target for iTunes SoundCheck playback loudness leveller is -16.5LUFS integrated. the mix you refer to would be attenuated by about 10LU's in order to bring it's subjective loudness in line with a more dynamic mix of -16.5 Integrated Loudness...which in the old days would equate to roughly a reduction in level of -10dB against a dynamic mix. that's like turning the volume down by 50 percent to achieve a similar perceived loudness against a dynamic mix.

over-compressed material sounds dull and lifeless, as @Berket's post herein accurately testifies, and this is exactly the problem with Till's mix. too many in the forum equate "loudness with goodness"; it's easy to understand how the loudness war got out of hand as record companies tried their best to appear louder than the competition. in the light of International Standards like EBU R128 here in Europe, and BS 1770 elsewhere (they are near identical), THERE'S NOTHING TO BE GAINED FROM PRODUCING A HOT MIX/MASTER.....but there's a lot to lose!!

to get things a little in perspective, Metallica's Death Magnetic which made a lot of fuss a while ago, had an integrated loudness of approximately -4LUFS. so, your mate's mix is only -2.4dB's less loud than Metallica's.

you should also note the True Peak value.....his mix was clipping it's guts out and causing distortion through my DAC and killing my speakers.

now, i'd love to mix Sleep by Fire, but the trouble is, in the recording's current state, it's NOT POSSIBLE to achieve a good sounding dynamic mix because he's smashed the tracking to bits. i don't know if his mix was INTENTIONALLY MIXED HOT IN ORDER TO SOUND IMPRESSIVE and pump the band's image up in the forum, but irrespective of this, he's not helping to educate people here in the forum with regards to dynamics and the use of appropriate compression. and his feedback which complements people despite them posting equally hot mixes, is actually counter productive to today's drive for BETTER QUALITY AUDIO.

as we say in Quality Management, "Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution".

i will say, however, that there are situations where over-compression or hot mixes are seen by many to be a creative feature of a particular sound and genre. what worries me about these opinions is that such mixes are HIGHLY FATIGUING to listen to. they might sound impressive on the first listen, but research has proven that people don't play it as often as they would a dynamic mix. the first thing i do when confronted with a hot mix is to turn the volume down which only makes the material sound lifeless. dynamic mixes sound fantastic when they are turned up, however.

i hope this helps, because i'm feeling a little weary from swimming against the tide now.

don't shoot the messenger, eh? and there's no need to get defensive because i'm not attacking anyone, i'm simply trying to get an important point across. have a go at doing a mix without ANY compressors.....it's a good experience.
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