[MLA] Loudness normalization with MQA

[Bob Katz]

Hey guys.... you probably know my prejudices:  Use album loudness data 
all the time. If you listened to the demo that I produced you would have 
no question about that.


Bob




On 1/26/17 4:10 PM, Grimm | Eelco wrote:
> Hi Kevin,
>
>> That's very nice. Do we know if there is a provision for album normalization? That would require a second piece of loudness metadata - loudness of the album as a whole or, as re recommend in our whitepaper, loudness of the loudest track. Also, peak level metadata can be useful for clipping prevention.
> Replaygain (as you very well know) has metadata for both track loudness and album loudness. Unfortunately it seems the album loudness metadata is not always monitored. And if it is, often the user has to choose manually between album and track normalization - which is an unnecessary complication of the UI in my opinion. This brings up the question if it would be better to trick the system and stream the album loudness in the track loudness fields. What is your opinion on that?
>
> All the best,
> Eelco
>
>> On Sun, Jan 22, 2017 at 6:12 AM, Robert Ludwig <gatewaybob at mac.com> wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> The question came up and I asked Bob Stuart if MQA can support Loudness Normalization on Tidal.  I got to spend 3 days with Bob Stuart, George Massenburg, and the great Shawn Murphy soundtrack engineer (Star Wars etc.) in Montréal.  I forgot to ask him in person but he just got back to me:
>>
>> 5) Can Tidal stream loudness normalized MQA streams?  As you heard from my talk, we mastering engineers hope universal adoption of Loudness Normalization will lead to the end of the Loudness Wars.
>>      
>>     * With MQA the exact file you create is streamed.
>>     * As a download this can include the loudness/replay gain info in the header.
>>       Our encoder calculates it. It's up to the label if the leave it there.
>>     * Tidal (and other streaming services) keep replay gain information and that is sent to the App at streaming time.
>>        The App can level the gain.
>>        In the case of MQA it can't just apply gain to the audio because that breaks it so the replay gain is passed on to the MQA decoder.
>>         The way we do it is best because we want replay gain to be passed all the way down the chain until it hits the only (and hopefully analogue) volume control. Not all MQA decoders respond to this information yet although we expect firmware updates to make that happen in the next few months - now that we have a clear policy from the streaming companies.
>>
>> MQA fully supports normalisation in the RIGHT way (as you might expect)..
>>
>>
>> Have a great Sunday!
>>
>> Bob Ludwig
>>
>> Gateway Mastering Studios, Inc.
>> 428 Cumberland Avenue
>> Portland, ME 04101
>> (207) 828-9400
>> www.gatewaymastering.com
>>
>>
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>> <15972535_1555792494434197_2337095743036056308_o.jpeg>
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-- 

If you want good sound on your album, come to Bob Katz 407-831-0233 
DIGITAL DOMAIN MASTERING STUDIO Author: *Mastering Audio *Digital Domain 
Website <http://www.digido.com/> No trees were killed in the sending of 
this message. However a large number of electrons were terribly 
inconvenienced.*Please excuse the weird typing - this message dictated 
by microphone. Contact me by regular email. *

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