<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>Dear Ian:</p>
<p>Thanks for doing that research.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>I can't wait till this all gets straightened out... <br>
</p>
<p>A client just told me (for the umpteenth time) that his song is
playing too soft on some platform or another. I told him either I
could crush it for him and it will sound distorted and
overcompressed, or he has to live with the problem on
non-normalized platforms. This is a great-sounding song that we
could ruin for the sake of loudness. Age old story.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Bob</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/24/22 6:36 AM, Ian Shepherd wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:0F1BEFA2-9DD4-4301-87A9-E70078E4CE0C@mastering-media.co.uk">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<div class="">Hi All,</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Buddy got back to me quickly - he says there is a
known issue with the macOS Music app where songs bought and
downloaded still use the old Sound Check value, which they’re
working on. This explains the strange M1 Mac result.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I also tested from my iPhone this morning which is
normalising to -16 LUFS, even with older files like Death
Magnetic, which is great news.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">However my Mojave iTunes is still using the Legacy
Sound Check setting, I’ve asked Buddy if there will be an update
to fix this and will let you know what he says.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">So, basically good news - hopefully they’ll fix that
bug fairly quickly, and hopefully also roll LUFS back to older
Mac OS versions. Lots of musicians and engineers use these old
versions, so it will be a source of plenty of confusion if they
don’t...</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Ian</div>
<div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 23 Feb 2022, at 16:18, Bob Katz <<a
href="mailto:bobkatz@digido.com"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">bobkatz@digido.com</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<div class="">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8" class="">
<div class="">
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/23/22 6:38 AM, Ian
Shepherd wrote:<br class="">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:29336B02-F42B-4DFA-B271-99557CE7EA1B@mastering-media.co.uk"
class="">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8" class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
Hi All,
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Just a heads-up about this. We’re planning
an update to Loudness Penalty to reflect the news that
iTunes is going to use LUFS for Sound Check, but I
wanted to warn you that in our tests it doesn’t seem
to be working as intended, even on a brand new M1 Mac
with the latest software updates and recently released
material.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I have other examples but specifically Bob
drew my attention to this song:</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">
<div class=""><a
href="https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-joker-and-the-queen-feat-taylor-swift/1608894948?i=1608894952"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-joker-and-the-queen-feat-taylor-swift/1608894948?i=1608894952</a></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Using the afinfo command in Terminal it
reports the following results:</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">aa itu loudness: -8.5</div>
<div class="">sound check volume normalization gain:
-7.50 dB</div>
</blockquote>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">This would result in a playback loudness
of -16 LUFS, but measuring the actual value gives a
result of -15.1 LUFS, which is a normalization
change of only -6.6 dB</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class="">Oy vey. <br class="">
</p>
<p class="">Well, I agree, this means that the legacy
SoundCheck is being used. We need some clarification
from Buddy Judge. <br class="">
</p>
<p class="">Let's compile this information and alert Buddy
Judge. At the least he will have an explanation. <br
class="">
</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:29336B02-F42B-4DFA-B271-99557CE7EA1B@mastering-media.co.uk"
class="">
<div class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Whereas the "Song
Info>File>Volume" value in iTunes reports
-6.7, which is obviously a very close match to the
measured result. Since this is the “Legacy” Sound
Check value, this song and other examples like it
make me think that LUFS values aren’t being used
yet, on Mac OS at least.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Testing the results from iOS is tricky
because of Apple’s copy protection, but if we make
any progress with this I’ll let you know.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I’ve emailed Buddy to ask about this,
and will let you know if I get a reply - perhaps
it’s just a glitch!</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Either way I wanted to make you aware so
that we don’t jump the gun announcing the change.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class="">I'm glad you wrote him!</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class="">Best,</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class="">Bob</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<p class=""><br class="">
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:29336B02-F42B-4DFA-B271-99557CE7EA1B@mastering-media.co.uk"
class="">
<div class="">
<div class="">Cheers,</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Ian</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br
class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class="">***<br class="">
Ian Shepherd<br class="">
<a href="http://mastering-media.co.uk/" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">Mastering Media Ltd</a> -
Audio Mastering, Blu-ray and DVD Excellence<br
class="">
<a href="http://twitter.com/ianshepherd"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://twitter.com/ianshepherd</a></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><a
href="http://twitter.com/ianshepherd" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true"><br class="">
</a><span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Mastering
Media Ltd,</span><br style="font-size: 11px;"
class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Kemp
House, 152 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX</span><br
style="font-size: 11px;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Registered
in England and Wales </span><br
style="font-size: 11px;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Company
No. 073500450</span><br style="font-size: 11px;"
class="">
<br style="font-size: 11px;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Tel.
+44(0)1487 842498</span></div>
</div>
<br class="">
</div>
<br class="">
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
MLA mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:MLA@grimmaudio.nl" moz-do-not-send="true">MLA@grimmaudio.nl</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl" moz-do-not-send="true">http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br class="">
<pre class=""><font class="3D""" face="3D"Courier"">
If you want good sound on your album, come to
Bob Katz 407-831-0233 DIGITAL DOMAIN MASTERING STUDIO
Author: <b class="">Mastering Audio</b>
<a href="https://www.digido.com/" class="" moz-do-not-send="true">Digital Domain Website</a>
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number
of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.</font>
</pre>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br class="">
MLA mailing list<br class="">
<a href="mailto:MLA@grimmaudio.nl"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">MLA@grimmaudio.nl</a><br
class="">
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl">http://grimmaudio.nl/mailman/listinfo/mla_grimmaudio.nl</a><br
class="">
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br class="">
</blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<pre><font class="3D""" face="3D"Courier"">
If you want good sound on your album, come to
Bob Katz 407-831-0233 DIGITAL DOMAIN MASTERING STUDIO
Author: <b>Mastering Audio</b>
<a href="https://www.digido.com/">Digital Domain Website</a>
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number
of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.</font>
</pre>
</div>
</body>
</html>