YouTube just put the final nail in the Loudness War’s coffin |
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Mar 18 2015, 12:54 AM
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http://productionadvice.co.uk/youtube-loudness/
This is HUGE. It may not look like much, but if you’re involved in music production, recording, mixing or mastering, this image could be the most important thing you’ll see all year. What is it ? It’s the loudness output of a YouTube playlist, as measured by the MeterPlugs LCast loudness meter. So what ? First – it’s quiet. The loudness levels are all quite low, especially by modern “loudness war” standards. Second – it’s very consistent. More importantly than the low loudness, they’re almost all playing at the same loudness. What does this mean ? It means that YouTube have been using loudness normalisation on their music videos – and they’ve been doing it since December last year. Everything plays at a similar loudness, regardless of how it was mastered. And no-one has noticed. Hear it for yourself – this playlist is composed almost entirely of current releases, with a wide variety of loudness on CD – and some of them are REALLY loud: So for example, at the more dynamic end of the spectrum, Mark Ronson & Bruno Mars’ massive hit ”Uptown Funk” measures -12 LUFS (DR 8 on the TT Meter) on CD. Whereas “Love Me Like You Do” by Ellie Goulding is squashed up to -8 LUFS (DR 5) on CD, and later in the playlist, Madonna’s “Living For Love” clocks in at an eye-watering (and heavily distorted) -7 LUFS (DR 4!) But on YouTube, all of them are being played back at a similar loudness of roughly -13 LUFS. And that’s HUGE, because YouTube is the single largest online discovery source for music. More kids look for music on YouTube than on iTunes, TV or radio, or anywhere. This is where they hear new music for the first time, decide if they like it, and whether to share it with their friends. And YouTube just took “loudness” out of the equation. Dynamic is the new Loud It’s now irrelevant how high the mastering levels of your music are – as I’ve shown before, on iTunes Radio, on Spotify and now on YouTube, we have no control about how loud people hear it – just as it’s always been on FM radio. In fact, heavily crushed, distorted “loudness war casualties” will often sound worse than more dynamic releases. And if you ever wanted proof that the extra dynamics in “Uptown Funk” are a crucial part of it’s success, press Play above and see which song it it that gets your head nodding and foot tapping first… This is the final nail in the coffin. The loudness war really is over – the only remaining question is, how long will it take for people take to notice ? So why do people even bother with loudness any more ? If you’re new to this issue, you’re probably asking, like everyone else – “why is music still being crushed like this ?” If loudness is irrelevant on iTunes Radio, on Spotify, and now on YouTube – why bother ? You can read my answer here: Learn the Loudness War’s dirty little secret But we still haven’t heard the whole story, yet. The plot is actually thicker… This is such an important issue, I’ve glossed over a few interesting details in this post – and a big problem with YouTube’s loudness control. The main point – YouTube is using loudness normalisation – still stands. But if you’ve been thinking ”Why are some of songs in that graph quieter or louder that -13 LUFS ?” – you’ve asked a good question. If you’re wondering “How have YouTube implemented this ?” – you deserve a straight answer. And if you’ve spotted the big problem with the way it works, you know it needs to be discussed. And I’ll address all those points in my next post. But meanwhile, if you want to help spread the word about the harm the loudness war has been doing to our music, and the good news that Dynamic is the new Loud – please support Dynamic Range Day. For more details, click here. UPDATE – Beware, spoilers ! For anyone who is testing this for themselves and finding songs that are louder or quieter – here is some more info – spoilers for my next, more detailed post. Songs are not being retrospectively normalised, at the moment at least. So songs uploaded before 2015 could be much louder or quieter than -13 LUFS – but, see the final point in this list I’m not sure if quiet songs are being boosted yet – I imagine they are. But the loudness won’t be lifted if clipping would be caused in the process So, more dynamic songs may still sound quieter The audio in the files doesn’t seem to be changed, only the playback level. So presumably, this will happen retrospectively to the whole YouTube music catalogue |
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Mar 18 2015, 08:33 AM
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Sound absolutely amazing. Maybe we won't need to worry about loud mixes in the future!
And even more importantly, have a much better musical experience on the web. |
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Mar 18 2015, 04:48 PM
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Doubtful that radio will change as it's been maximizing the volume since the mid 50s.
In fact in the 50s, the producers (studios and engineers) who garnered most of the work were the ones who could make your single 'louder' on the radio. The RIAA curve became the global standard in about 1954 (though it was around before that). -------------------- - Ken Lasaine
https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/foolin-the-clouds https://soundcloud.com/klasaine2/surfin-at-the-country-hop Soundcloud assorted ... https://soundcloud.com/klasaine3 New record ... http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kenlasaine Solo Guitar ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...5iIdO2tpgtj25Ke Stuff I'm on ... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXZh...b-dhb-4B0KgRY-d |
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Mar 19 2015, 10:21 AM
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Apparantely itunes uses "Soundcheck" algo and Spotify "Equal Loudness". So both of these are normalising levels just like youtube now does.
But Soundcloud still doesn't (and on top of that provides superl ow quality streaming - 128kbits mp3). This according to Swedish site: http://bloggar.m3.idg.se/pluggar/fredagsti...ka-du-tanka-pa/ |
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Mar 19 2015, 09:00 PM
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Well said, soundcloud is among the laggards to the equal sound level party. I'm sure they will come around eventually
 Also, they do have a LOOOOOOOWWW quality stream currently which is sad since it's the dominant service of it's kind right now. As bandwidth continues to increase, I'm sure they will increase the quality of their stream. I sure hop so!! Todd QUOTE (Kristofer Dahl @ Mar 19 2015, 05:21 AM)  Apparantely itunes uses "Soundcheck" algo and Spotify "Equal Loudness". So both of these are normalising levels just like youtube now does. But Soundcloud still doesn't (and on top of that provides superl ow quality streaming - 128kbits mp3). This according to Swedish site: http://bloggar.m3.idg.se/pluggar/fredagsti...ka-du-tanka-pa/ |
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