Mastering Engineer Greg Calbi on Compression and the Loudness War in Mastering

[antonio610]

The music industry is the ultimate real-life argument against the invisible hand of the market.

[YoungScoob714]

Everything you laid out made so much sense. Some of the theories that are made by people in the industry are way out there. But lets face it, people in marketing are not engineers. They do not have the insights that the engineers and some of the musicians do.

[kisulee]

This dude is so right on, it's humorous. Shadik

[imfree707]

The answer to the loudness war is simple. Most people have AADD, audio attention deficit disorder, and just need to start paying attention and listening to what's coming out of their speakers and phones. Few people really listen to music very deeply any more.

[lonzenator]

This engineer is correct. I wish the general music business would wake up and hear people like him talking. Dynamic range is alway better than just loud..... Look at the moist enduring works of all times (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt or any other major composer. They wrote music that went from very soft to extremely loud and people loved it. Music should be about how it affect the emotions of the person, not how deaf we can make them....

[weses1]

Digital has such an incredibly low noise floor... there's really no point in having anything loud at all. Anything above -78 db will sound great with 16 bit. That's an awful lot of headroom for good sound.

[MichaelTobiasMusic]

RIght on man. Thanks for posting.

[jaimiecurrie]

Starts of clam then goes mad, he reminds me of larry david!

[RadeonZero]

When I look at a poorly mastered album, and I feel like doing a remix ANYMORE...(Not anything past at all)...I'll usually re-dither and lower the dynamic range to a average of 13 dB dynamic range...That way setting PDR's, St. Links, Compression Smoothing...(which I have none, seeing as a good dynamic range will have none), setting all the times for that, it makes it so much easier to go back and say "Hey, there's dynamic range now, so I got something to clear up." Just a starting point is all.

[BasicallyImPro]

"industry standard mastering":

M=X-P+C

x=final mix, p=peaks, c=compression

[winnlamp]

PLUGINS RULE!!!

[MacXpert74]

The comment about the iPod playlist doesn't make much sense. If the song is in your playlist, then you already bought it. So from a selling point of view there is no competition. And why do people think louder is better anyway. I personally would turn the volume down, if a track is much louder than others.

From a music selling point I say: High compressed music sounds bad, so I don't like to buy it, or listen to it. Labels should start to understand that. This why music is selling less!

[Dragonsbloodmusic]

... Mastering used to be a rarified service and now anyone with a Mac is MASTERING ENGINEER, I think that has a bit to do with it as well.

The mastering engineer I use has been at it for 30 years and treat my mixes with respect and maintains a musical dynamic range. His work isn't LOUD but it sounds so good I keep going back and my client have never complained.

[Dragonsbloodmusic]

Everyone wants the loudness war to end they just want it to be someone else's album.

Personally, I feel a loud cd is easily achieved with a volume knob. The cd doesn't have to crush the preamplifier on my playback system when I can just as easily turn it up with the volume control myself.

Some things sound good crushed. There are some songs out there that benefit from a getting slammed in the master buss. It imparts a visceral thrill to the listening experience. However, I fail to see the need

[akshayde]

the 70s dint have rebecca black singing friday... no wonder it wasnt fatiguing

[SLUMDOOLA]

EXCELLENT WORDS.

[ipainter]

You say there are so many ways to have impact with music. Please elaborate with another video!

[DawnPatroler]

VEKTOR Black Future, is very loud but it has great production for digital recordings for new-rock sounds.

[MultimediaForFree]

"OHHH IT'S KILLING ME"

[infinitesimotel]

Same thing as with everything: more glitter than gold. Its an typical example of this ethos of sensory over-saturation, at the expense of subtley, quality, cadence and dynamics.

[infinitesimotel]

@infinitesimotel And also to dilute down true excitement and evocation. Its the same thing with movies, everything now is about how it looks as oppsed to what it says and how its put together to speak to the soul. Intense CGI, noise, explosions, silly manic music and fast cut montages. Just look at the difference between clash of the titans original and the 'remake'.  If the content is good, it will be noticed.

[DuskY1991]

I'm not a mastering engineer at all, but I want to learn about mastering and I thank you so much for this video.

[honkytonktim]

Greg, I couldn't agree with you more, as an engineer all I hear is we want it loud!!! it's getting crazy thanks for the vid...

[thermalmaximum]

I agree with these thoughts, but the truth is that the general public does not care about quality. And it's the money of the masses that keeps recording studios open, keeps music equipment manufacturers in business, and keeps recording artists stocked with cocaine and guitars. I think most musicians and recording engineers would agree with the subtleties of this video. As for whether or not it makes a difference in the marketplace? Probably not. Societally, we're engaged in a race to the bottom.

[thinkingevil]

@thermalmaximum Actually, making unmusical, over-cranked, undynamic tracks will backfire and keep the "marketplace" from getting excited to buy what greed is dishing out. This is already in full effect. Everybody concurs, "music sucks today." Total demoralisation of the buying public is the fault of the product. Whether the "marketplace" is conscious of "subtleties" or not, viscerally, the body reacts to truth. People get sick from pollution in their water whether they can detect it or not.

[MrHENNYBLACK]

@thermalmaximum All this great work to be dumped to 8bit Ipods.

[VitalPatricia]

The thinkers cap I can put on because I am an owner of a recording studio and know more or less what I am talking about. :) But people pirate music because the price is too high for buying a CD and the quality today sometimes is too low.

[infinitesimotel]

@VitalPatricia I agree. Piracy is just a symptom of industrial greed.

[analyzingfunny]

@infinitesimotel yup, it's just theft of one work

[VitalPatricia]

I am sorry but putting 20 Euros for an album it a too high a price...I never pirate music because I don't know how to do that sincerely, but I wont pay so much for a recording especially if it sounds bad.

[VitalPatricia]

Thats why nobody sells CDs today. Because the sound quality on the album and on you tube is almost the same!. There is so much compression that the drums are no longer crisp nor exiting. And here in Spain the average studios make their recordings so bad...the band wants loudness and they give it, charge a lot of money and the final product sounds like badly washed crap. I think with time they will start to compress less because the sales are no good...

[soulstudiosmusic]

@VitalPatricia people don't sell cds because other people are immoral. That's all. People still pirate the shit out of loud music, and they pirate it more than other, less loud, 'indie' music. So please don't put on your thinkers cap and decide you've solved the problem. The problem is human ethics. That's all. Bye.

[BigSlickPoker]

quality over QUANTITY is better - less is always more

[sardhouse76]

stop loudness war

[Massivecarcrash]

This really needs to stop.

My ears hurt after listening to post year 2000 albums for 15 minutes, even at low volumes

[thenewyardbirds]

helarious and great. im so glad professionals are speakin the truth about sound and business topics. good stuff. thanks

[dropdeadsed]

thanks for that.

[CYUMINISTRIES]

Great and informative presentation. 

[andyhagerty]

I completely agree Greg! Well put!

[astrosmash1]

I have stopped listening to bands who have released albums that were too "loud". RHCP and Sleeter-Kinney are two of the more egregious examples. The bad experience taints my enjoyment of their entire catalog, and I'm not likely to buy their next album or go to their next show.

So, in a way, the marketers are right. It's just the marketers and I disagree on what sounds good.

It's funny that I now have to go to independent bands to find recordings that actually sounds good.

[horsedoctorman]

@astrosmash1 the weird thing is that this Greg Calbi guy mastered the Sleater-Kinney album you're talking about

[victotronics]

"there are many other ways of making impact": yes, by having good music!

Great interview.

[gmullin]

Money and profit is ruining music.

[nekromachine]

Thank you for speaking up and openly about this area of nasties that need to be adressed and dealt with, Awareness is getting better and again nice one for telling it like it unfortunately is. Well said

[petrisuhonen1]

wow... this makes perfect sense.. I think I really need to stop squashing my tracks for the sake of dynamics..

Great video, thanks!

[misterite]

@petrisuhonen1 or the lake of dynamics :p

[BrianB05]

I gotta meet this guy, he's full of great advice.

[jjohnson3030]

Well said; I like this video a lot..

Why don't mp3 players have better normalization?

[audiogeekzine]

Great rant!

I think the way I master will immediately change.