[MLA] Loudness normalization with MQA

[Kevin Gross]

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.

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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>
>
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