Worked out how the hell to use a fast limiter. Now my home musical productions can be as brick-wall limited and ear-bashing as the stuff I’m trying to imitate!
(Seriously, this is a major advance in getting my stuff usable by others. In technoish dance music, LOUDNESS WARS really aren’t optional. This is unfortunate but unavoidable.)
Also discovered the loved one can sing in shouty German very well indeed—and is, after having put up with years of me noodling at this stuff, actually excited by the prospect of singing on top of it. The shouty German version of “Planet Rock” should be an absolute corker. DAC top ten here we come! [citation needed]
Apparently turning techno into an ear-bashing brick wall with that particular distortion (I’m not quite sure what it is … it’s flattening the amplitude of the whole, so that’d be an AM spectrum of a few Hz around everything) that sounds tolerable on headphones and in clubs but shitty on speakers at normal volume doesn’t constitute “ruining quality”. [themoreyouknow.gif]
But yes, it’s the One Weird Trick that made a bunch of stuff sound much more like I actually wanted it to. It’s a bit better applied per-instrument (especially bass, or percussion as a group) than to the whole—then it’s just another effect.
Interesting! I have no experience with techno, but my genre of specialty (metal) is also subject to the loudness war. Generally I’ve found that clipping effects (the free gclip vst is great for this) is good for reducing the imperceptible attack on drums, and some side chain compression to duck the bass when the kick hits are most of what’s necessary to be able to apply heavy compression and volume increasing without sacrificing too much quality.
I’ve wondered if it would be possibly to end the loudness war by specifying everything with floating point values. If you can trivially make your music a trillion times louder, there’d be no point.
At the very least, until people get to the upper edge of it, it would mean that regardless of how loud it’s “supposed to be”, you can turn it down so it doesn’t clip.
“You see, most blokes will be playing at 1e50. You’re on 1e50, all the way up, all the way up...Where can you go from there? Nowhere. What we do, is if we need that extra push over the cliff...infinity. Infinitely louder.”
The standard is still 16⁄44, because that can hold the entire hearing range of any human ever tested (see also videos), though the trouble is that’s different from what people actually use it to hold. And it’s what’s on CDs and what most compressed files expand to.
I’ve got a really very good version of “Trans-Europe Express”, if only I can record and autotune (hard computer-sounding autotune) the vocals how I’m thinking.
Now of course we need originals up to the same standard …
Actually, I’m finding this weirdly coincidental: I was listening to DAF for the first time this week and it really made me want to do a project with electronics by me and shouty German vocals by a female friend of mine who happens to be fluent in shouty German. It even crossed my mind to do some heavy/weirded out versions of Kraftwerk songs.
Worked out how the hell to use a fast limiter. Now my home musical productions can be as brick-wall limited and ear-bashing as the stuff I’m trying to imitate!
(Seriously, this is a major advance in getting my stuff usable by others. In technoish dance music, LOUDNESS WARS really aren’t optional. This is unfortunate but unavoidable.)
Also discovered the loved one can sing in shouty German very well indeed—and is, after having put up with years of me noodling at this stuff, actually excited by the prospect of singing on top of it. The shouty German version of “Planet Rock” should be an absolute corker. DAC top ten here we come! [citation needed]
Nice. Mastering can be a nightmare, and getting the loudness up without ruining quality is one of the hardest parts of releasing pro sounding music.
Apparently turning techno into an ear-bashing brick wall with that particular distortion (I’m not quite sure what it is … it’s flattening the amplitude of the whole, so that’d be an AM spectrum of a few Hz around everything) that sounds tolerable on headphones and in clubs but shitty on speakers at normal volume doesn’t constitute “ruining quality”. [themoreyouknow.gif]
But yes, it’s the One Weird Trick that made a bunch of stuff sound much more like I actually wanted it to. It’s a bit better applied per-instrument (especially bass, or percussion as a group) than to the whole—then it’s just another effect.
Interesting! I have no experience with techno, but my genre of specialty (metal) is also subject to the loudness war. Generally I’ve found that clipping effects (the free gclip vst is great for this) is good for reducing the imperceptible attack on drums, and some side chain compression to duck the bass when the kick hits are most of what’s necessary to be able to apply heavy compression and volume increasing without sacrificing too much quality.
I’ve wondered if it would be possibly to end the loudness war by specifying everything with floating point values. If you can trivially make your music a trillion times louder, there’d be no point.
At the very least, until people get to the upper edge of it, it would mean that regardless of how loud it’s “supposed to be”, you can turn it down so it doesn’t clip.
“You see, most blokes will be playing at 1e50. You’re on 1e50, all the way up, all the way up...Where can you go from there? Nowhere. What we do, is if we need that extra push over the cliff...infinity. Infinitely louder.”
The standard is still 16⁄44, because that can hold the entire hearing range of any human ever tested (see also videos), though the trouble is that’s different from what people actually use it to hold. And it’s what’s on CDs and what most compressed files expand to.
Probably the most likely way out of the loudness wars will be Apple telling engineers not to do that, because LOUDNESS WARS mixes will be made quieter in iTunes. Cross fingers.
Yeah, that would be great, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
Agreed. Great idea. Hope it works out.
PLANET! ROCK! NICHT HALT!
(I don’t care if that’s ungrammatical.)
I’ve got a really very good version of “Trans-Europe Express”, if only I can record and autotune (hard computer-sounding autotune) the vocals how I’m thinking.
Now of course we need originals up to the same standard …
Actually, I’m finding this weirdly coincidental: I was listening to DAF for the first time this week and it really made me want to do a project with electronics by me and shouty German vocals by a female friend of mine who happens to be fluent in shouty German. It even crossed my mind to do some heavy/weirded out versions of Kraftwerk songs.
Yep the complete works of DAF and also renovated the Wikipedia articles :-D