You're right.
Done!!

 

It's jazz and techno. It's like the devil is in your ears, and then, your head.

 

Great,
I'm unclear on this:
-6dB/8dB headroom

So it should be -6dBFS peak and at least 8.0 LRA?
In my case that'd be -27 LKFS, which is fine, most of my tracks are around -20 LKFS

What about FLAC as submission format? Much more efficient for transfers.

 

Last edited: Jan 23, 2018

If the the 'Album' is going to be mastered and adjusted by an ME in post here is what I suggest. Just don't clip or limit, deliver the loudness you deliver, although it would be nice if there was a target set ahead of time. If we are going to do this at old school levels -18LU should be the target for the final tacks, if we are going a bit more modern -16LU.

So if you deliver -20 it should be fine.

You don't need any specific amount of headroom if you do it is just a courtesy, some politeness, so that the ME doesn't have to attenuate your track before processing.

I would say any lossless format outside of DSD is fair game FLAC, ALA, AIFF, WAV...

If people are that averse to attenuation I can make a post on how to automate the process.

 

https://www.recordingconnection.com/glossary/

 

Let's be even more modern and end up with -23 LU
Just go and listen to Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries

 

The lower the better as far as I am concerned I second that, might be a bit harder for the guys going for Jazz inspired vs Jazz though.

It's your show boss, if you guys set a target I'll fly to it.

 

does rock with saxophone qualify as jazz-influenced contender?

 

Yes of course it can be Flac format.

About the Db headroom thing, GodHimSelf Should give us the explanation.

 

Let's talk dB:

I'll use an example: you made a track. That track was mixed and you want to make it louder/polished. But upon receiving, the mastering engineer (M.E.) sees he can't use a limiter or a compressor on some parts because some transients are so loud they are passing 0 dbfs or even higher (clipping): this information that went over 0 dbfs is lost and will result on bad artifacts when limiting i.e.

The deal here is that nothing peaks above 0. One way to ensure this is to give a 6 or 8db headroom so the ME can compress and clip in a proper way not an artificial and unwanted one. Make sure the PEAK is -6 dBFS.

About FLAC: from what I know this a PLAYBACK codec. I wouldn't advise using it in the production/post production stage. I don't know the STN ratio. Wav or aiff never fail.

Hope this helps.

 

Adding: peaks like this can clip and distort. The one with the blue type probably did. It's close to (or passed) the ceiling of the headroom.

 

It's mathematically identical to the WAV/AIFF counterpart. There's literally no difference in PCM data, FLAC only removes the unused bits. It's interesting it's not used in production stage widely, I'd think it could be due to misinformation from audiophiles, claiming that "it sounds worse". Reality check though, when you null it, nothing remains = mathematically identical. The benefits of storage savings are very evident, especially when freezing.

The question is though - why even hard-limit on jazz album after all? This genre is playing a lot with dynamics. Could be wishful thinking but why not end up with -23 LKFS and no more than -1dBTP in the final product?
-6 dBFS peak for processing is a good practice - agreed on that idea.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2018

Another is to stop guessing & use a meter with peak hold.

 

You did a null test with wav and flac? Cool, I would never have come up with this idea.

Hard limiting has nothing to do with a loss of dynamics. Setting a good working limiter at -1dB only prevents ISPs.

 

I can go with those numbers, I got no objection. Regarding FLAC, I have little experience and as I receive in wav, I never had to try it. I can give it a go and learn something!

 

You are right, but I think most people here are producers or instrument players. So I tend to use that to ease everyone's job.

 

Nothing a normalization scan couldn't do.
Scan waveform for highest peak -> apply gain relative to that peak -> profit

When in doubt, export as floating point wav, load in Audacity (or any other editor at your disposal) and normalize there.

 

Last edited: Jan 25, 2018

Dude, sick track, very well done with a good mix. I won't touch it much. Congrats!

 

Agree but it could confuse people.

 

I give you that, but if you're applying any fx in mastering, be it eq or saturation, you can easily reach a clipping level and then those limiters will do fine. If you don't apply anything the whole discussion is useless, because you just have to stay below -1dBFS peak level and every DAW will show you that.