[MLA] ***SPAM*** Loudness normalization with MQA

[Thomas Lund]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for asking Bob Stuart. While it’s true that end-normalization is where it should ideally happen, which we have been promoting for years, it’s a pity his format doesn’t include metadata in the bitstream. That would have made a bigger difference to sound quality than another proprietary, moderately lossy codec.

Maybe the “loudness/replay gain info” is proprietary too, but hopefully MQA is at least adhering to BS.1770 in the encoder. We ought to test this. If so, MQA mostly shouldn’t be worse than Tidal’s linear lossless service :-)

cheers,
Thomas


> On 22/01/2017, at 14.12, 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 <http://www.gatewaymastering.com/>
> 
> 
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