[Ardour-Users] New analysis window when doing an export

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

On 02/22/2016 12:07 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> I dislike the loudness war, but there are a few things to consider.
>
> Some music, e.g. classical music, was composed for concert halls and not
> for listening in an old tenement building close to a main street.
> It's not unusual that if you play the loudest parts of a classical
> music recordings at an appropriate moderate volume, because you care
> about your neighbours, the silent parts of the recordings become
> inaudible, since the noise from the streets is louder, not to mention
> that averaged hifi speakers might not work properly, if the music
> becomes very silent.

but that's the beauty of loudness metering: your average volume will be 
controlled. it's still up to the balance engineer to gently amplify very 
soft passages to make them listenable.
and even the most radical "classical" compression is a long way away 
from the bit-crushing of late 2000s pop and rock music, so the last 
thing you have to fear about is your listening experience with classical 
music.

> Another issue is the target group. If the target group expects a mix
> they are used to, either because they have a bad taste and prefer
> loudness war mixes, or because they listen while driving a car, or they
> simply live in an old tenement building etc., then they consider an by
> itself good mix, as an unprofessional mix compared to a crappy loudness
> war mixes.

don't worry about people who prefer loudness war mixes. they will get 
exactly the sound they deserve. the only difference is that it will be 
just as loud as any reasonable mix over the radio. so that you and i 
don't have to go on the loudness warpath to make our mixes survive. we 
can enjoy 18 dB of headroom and use them. metallica's 18 dB of headroom 
will be all zeroes :-D

> It's more wise to orientate towards reality, than to orientate towards
> what is desirable for the taste of audio engineers. The most simple
> point of orientation are other recordings the target group likes to
> listen too.

a recommendation by the european broadcast union could be considered 
reality by some people.
tv programs being returned by german national broadcasters for failure 
to comply with EBU-R 128 could be considered reality.

the "most simple point of orientation" is, excuse me, bollocks. the most 
simple point of orientation for audio software is to buy (or pirate, 
since you mention "reality") protools. the most simple point of 
orientation for surround sound is mono (90% of all movies are porn, and 
90% of all grunts and moans are in the center channel). so why use 
linux, why bother with ardour? why mix movies in 5.1? why even think 
about binaural or ambisonics?

i'm not working my ass off in this business to perpetuate the same old 
shit, but in order to make stuff better. the ardour devs are not in it 
because they think what everyone else offers is just fine and dandy. the 
"eat shit, billions of flies can't be wrong" argument is just that, a joke.

now EBU-R 128 doesn't apply to you making your cd. you can master it any 
way you want. but the loudness war never happened on cds, it happened on 
the radio. there, it is now effectively over, at least in europe.
but to argue against understanding what loudness normalisation is 
because people allegedly want to listen to crap because all they have 
been hearing for the last 10 years was crap is, well, crap.


-- 
Jörn Nettingsmeier
Lortzingstr. 11, 45128 Essen, Tel. +49 177 7937487

Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik (Bühne/Studio)
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