Mastering LUFS-Spotify does not normalize anymore???

[Marcello]

There you go indeed, so Spotify won't normalize anymore, I guess if you have premium account, Bandcamp also never did. Does it make sense still to master at -14 LUFS integrated as recommended for streaming platforms?

My mastering engineer ,which is more of a mixing engineer actually, told me that the master version he did at -14 LUFS integrated in terms of quality sounds much better of that done at -10/-8 LUFS integrated. Is this possible??

The more you raise the volume (meaning pushing the track more against the  limiter in the master) the more sounds shitty?

I cannot hear the difference honestly but if I compare the master he did with some reference tracks, it's much lower in volume.

https://newsroom.spotify.com/2021-02-22/five-things-to-know-about-spotify-hifi/

[Marcello]

On 7/23/2021 at 8:10 PM, NOLAGuy said:

@MarcelloI  just got a notification yesterday from PluginBoutique.com (a legitimate site handling only legal versions of plugins) with an offer for customers of PlugIn Boutique to get Ozone 9 Standard for $49 (80% off) as part of a Summer Izotope sale on various products (Only good until August 1st).  You can sign-up with PlugInBoutique today and "may" be able to take advantage of the offer by looking around the website for Ozone 9 offers. I am an owner of Ozone Essentials, but that does not appear to be the criteria for this offer.

Be aware that sometimes, not always, such large discounts may be related to a new version to be released, but I think the current version of Ozone 9 Standard is quite powerful and very usable (from my use of the demo) being a novice user, and I am going to purchase it. If you register on the site and don't find this offer, send me a note, and I can forward the email info I received.

 

On 7/23/2021 at 8:30 AM, Max Arwood said:

Yes John - I am totally with you here - Low frequencies can push your readings to the max (not me a different Max lol) - Your song might not sound loud if you have too much stuff down there!  Also 1k-3k can make it too loud. Voxengo Span is a great free app for looking at frequency balance/volumes.

 

I don't think this is that great of a list - but it has a few good ones listed. They left out several - ADPT Streamliner, Levels, MLoudness, Waves WLM Plus. One of my favorite.

https://www.musicradar.com/news/12-of-the-best-vstau-metering-plugins

 

On 7/31/2021 at 6:42 PM, Craig Anderton said:

I didn't see this addressed specifically in the thread, but when a streaming service says its target is -14 LUFS, that doesn't mean your master has to measure -14 LUFS. It can be whatever you want, and the streaming service will turn it down to meet their target LUFS level. Sometimes you want to master "hot" to get a certain character, and that character will be preserved when the song is turned down.

One of the main reasons to meet a streaming services specs is because they often transcode to compressed audio. Meeting their specs will usually guarantee the least amount of distortion and other artifacts when the music is compressed. However, for the best transcoding performance, what's more important than meeting the LUFS spec is meeting the True Peak spec, which is typically -1 or -2 dB.

The best aspect for me about a streaming service's spec is that it means I can master something like an acoustic or jazz album to -14 LUFS, which is a decent amount of dynamic range, and it won't sound super-soft compared to everything else. (BTW some streaming services will turn up music below -14 LUFS, but others don't. So when artistically possible, I make sure a master doesn't go below -14 LUFS.)

@Craig Anderton Yes Indeed, my friend who's a mixing engineer and did some mastering before, told me that he mastered my tracks to stay at around -14 LUFS int because more than that would sound worst, I think he means that would sound too hot and harsh, at the same time I have to be happy with the volume not being too loud, at least not as loud as my other reference tracks.

Thing that bothers me is not when I listen to the record on speakers or amplifiers, but when I listen to it from my mobile phone, iPhone in my case, which  has a maximum level to protect ear damage which is not in relation with lufs, so if the song is low I cannot raise the volume until a certein point.

I'm not sure he took into account the low frequencies being too high 

Edited October 7, 2021 by Marcello

[Marcello]

This is the track, is it too quiet in your opinion? try to compare it with some other references.

Skip the first part is only solo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VNQJSj152Zxw1PFJGIHYQAMPEb89fZY9/view?usp=sharing

[vhuyy adam]

I really like Spotify! Even though, I don't have Premium, I can still listen to good songs. Obviously, sometimes they don't get it right. But since it's Christmas, whenever my playlist would end, I would get an endless, endless amount of Christmas songs.