<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">I would be even more graphic since we're among friends here: Putting Emily Lazar on a loudness panel is like asking the fox to guard the hen house. What hypocrisy. <div><br></div><div>Bob K<br><div><br><div id="AppleMailSignature" dir="ltr">My iPhone made me write this. Quotes only below this line. Nothing more to see here. <div>----------------------------------------------------</div></div><div dir="ltr"><br>On Feb 27, 2019, at 6:48 PM, Ian Shepherd <<a href="mailto:ian@mastering-media.co.uk">ian@mastering-media.co.uk</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"><div apple-content-edited="true" class=""><br class="">
</div><div class="">Hi Bob,</div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="">Thanks for the update. A few things jumped out at me from your email, and I thought I’d respond while it’s still fresh:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">As the AES has a loudness panel, now Maureen Droney, Emily Lazar and Tom Elmhirst have formed a loudness panel for the P&E Wing.</div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>This is ironic - from my perspective Emily’s studio has been responsible for many of the loudest releases over recent years, including the latest Beck album, I believe. Which makes this even more relevant:</div><div><br class=""></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div class="">Apparently Beck (who won again this year for Best Engineered album, his second one) had bitterly complained about the way his album sounded on Spotify. </div></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div><div>I wonder if this could be an opportunity, given that you have a history of working with Beck. Perhaps you could demonstrate to him that a more dynamic version can sound just as loud (and potentially better) on Spotify, using the Preview function on the Loudness Penalty site to demonstrate the point ? For some reason people seem to find the automated nature of the site more persuasive than simply being told “this is what will happen”, and that might apply to him, too.</div><div><br class=""></div><div>In fact, Ian Kerr from MeterPlugs and I are about to start beta-testing a plugin version of Loudness Penalty any day now, which we plan to release soon. It gives a real-time measure of the Loudness Penalty, and can be used in a mastering scenario to optimise the results on the fly. I’d be happy to arrange for you to be one of the beta-testers, if you think there’s any mileage in the idea. </div><div><br class=""></div><div>(On the other hand, perhaps Beck is simply comparing the normalised playback with the CD version and not liking it because it’s quieter…?)</div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div class="">So the P&E Wing wants to help educate the masses about loudness</div></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div>This is great news !</div><div><br class=""></div><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div class="">The most interesting thing from my call was Maureen saying the reason we get these <b class="">mix-engineers </b>submitting these blisteringly hot mixes for mastering is ONLY because the <u class="">people who create and submit</u><u class=""> the artist’s <b class="">DEMOs</b></u> to the record companies are the root cause of this chain of fools. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">These highly paid and royalty-earning mixers are all in competition with one another, and if the mix they submit to A&R is not at least as loud as the demos A&R were referencing, the A&R dept. won’t accept it and use another mixer that <u class="">will</u> beat the demo.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I hadn’t really anticipated hearing about this scenario. So the education needs to go even further back up the chain.</div></div></div></blockquote><div><br class=""></div><div>I have to say this doesn’t surprise me especially, but makes perfect sense. On the other hand I recently watched a YouTube video with Dave Pensado where he expressed annoyance at the whole concept of normalisation because it stopped his stuff sounding louder than the work of other “candy ass” mixers...</div><div><br class=""></div><div>Overall I think the most powerful signal the Academy could send would be to stop giving awards to super-loud albums, but that’s obviously a can of worms !</div><div><br class=""></div>Ian</div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><div>PS. It’s nice to see my little table sneaking it’s way out into the big wide world ! 😂😂</div><div><br class=""></div><div><br class=""></div><br class=""></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>MLA mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:MLA@grimmaudio.nl">MLA@grimmaudio.nl</a></span><br><span><a href="http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl">http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl</a></span><br></div></blockquote></div></div></body></html>