"flipper" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:43:57 +0200, "Iain Churches"
wrote:
"flipper" wrote in message
http://www.chicagomasteringservice.com/loudness.html
"In studios with both types of metering present, a point on the
negative dBFS scale would be correlated with a point on the dBVU
scale. Typically this is something like -20 dBFS = 0 dBVU, so that "0
dB" on a VU meter would leave approximately 20dB of headroom for
signal peaks on the dBFS scale."
Hi Flipper. Interesting you should mention the VU. The mastering
facility where I work often has digital PPMs, a pair of analogue
PPMs and VUs also. The resident engineer told me that he finds the
VUs extremely useful for their indication of a close approximation
of the "perceived loudness" with compressed material.
Makes sense since that was it's purpose: "Volume Unit" meter.
It is interesting to note the re-appearance of VUs added to the
existing meter overbridge, particularly in mastering suites.
This is
something considered important in the domain of popular
"louder is better" CD mastering.
Sad, isn't it? Makes one wonder a bit about the tem 'artist'.
The artist is not to blame. What the current situation shows is
the total apathy of the public to a poor sounding product which
has been tailored to what seems to be their needs. This is
even more frustrating because the pre-production master is
probably as clean as a whistle:-(
I can't help but think of Lena Lamont, in Singing in the Rain, who
thinks the totally screwed up sound is terrific because it was "good
and loud."
That is precisely the siatuation today. People like those
on this group, who seek and appreciate high quality
audio are sadly just a very small majority.
Yeah. The arguments about people listening mostly in cars and iPODs is
interesting ´
It's a bit more than an argument, it is the result of a study
in which fairly large sections of the public were interviewed
both in the EU and the States.
but I'd much rather have a compressor. or 'automatic level
control', in the playback unit that have it permanently mangled on the
source material.
Yes indeed. That's an option that has been mentioned by many,
who have for example been asking for clean download ".wav" files
instead of, or in addition to the compressed .mp3s which are
currently available.
The same could apply to CD. "Hot or normal , sir?"
Sounds like a kebab bar, doesn't it? :-))
Reminds me of the old tape recorder days and the one and only 'joke' a
fellah I knew back then came up with. Someone had a tape recorder with
"ARC" plastered in it and while he knew "ALC" was "Automatic Level
Control" he wondered what the heck "ARC" stood for. And our 'never
invented a joke before' friend retorted, in his best Japenglish
impersonation, "Autwromatwric wRevel Contwrol."
:-)
Iain