is the concept of loudness important given the normalization that spotify provides for all tracks

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by stav, Jun 24, 2024 at 8:59 PM.

  1. stav

    stav Noisemaker

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    is the concept of loudness important during mastering provided the the normalization that spotify provides for all tracks?

    (only from a spotify point of view)

    thanks
     
    stav, Jun 24, 2024 at 8:59 PM
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  3. naitguy

    naitguy Audiosexual

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    Best Answer
    Well, if you care about competing with other songs' loudness (like most artists do), then for sure yes, the concept is still important. There's a lot more that goes into the perceived loudness of a track beyond what level it is normalized to.

    When your track is normalized, the peaks are what determine how much your track is turned up or down. So if your track is VERY dynamic, it might have some really high peaks.. maybe it ends up getting turned down by Spotify still, but it could sound quite quiet compared to another track because all of the track gets turned down, including the quiet parts, so they just get quieter. Even if spotify decided your song can be turned up, the quiet parts probably don't get increased enough.

    Using another example - a very compressed, sausage-shaped waveform. This might sound super loud by comparison. It also might sound like trash, being that it's super compressed.

    There's a happy medium though, a certain amount of dynamic content but also some compression to bring those quiet parts up a bit more.

    Further to that, there's more to it than just dynamics as well.. getting everything to sit and also be balanced properly. Ex., you might have way too much bass drowning out other stuff, or perhaps a lot of "mud" that really just eats up headroom, essentially making your song seem less loud.

    I'm struggling to explain this all well, but I hope that helped.
     
    naitguy, Jun 24, 2024 at 10:48 PM
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  4. mydemons

    mydemons Member

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    normalization and loudness are two different things altogether. when you normalize a track you are not squashing it to kingdom come. when you're after loudness you can choose to do that or not to do that. you can make it sound louder with the "correct" usage of eqs and compressors and limiters and whatnot. normalization on the other hand has nothing to do with that. there's no compression going on in the normalization process (AND if there's anything else going on with spottify then they are not just normalizing) Exactly like naitguy said "When your track is normalized, the peaks are what determine how much your track is turned up or down. So if your track is VERY dynamic, it might have some really high peaks.. maybe it ends up getting turned down by Spotify still, but it could sound quite quiet compared to another track because all of the track gets turned down, including the quiet parts, so they just get quieter. Even if spotify decided your song can be turned up, the quiet parts probably don't get increased enough."

    On a side note, I wouldn't consider spotify HQ a portal of people interested in maintaining good quality/fidelity of sound. One could consider the money they pay rogan and such ppl alike a good indicator of what their priorities are. I would just love to get back in the car and the f#"%$ iphone would finish playing the f#$% album I was listening too instead of jumping to another thing altogether. and that's valid to youtube music, spotify, apple music services etc. no wonder people nowadays don't listen to full albums. it's not they don't want to. it's that they make it so hard for the listener to do that.
     
    mydemons, Jun 25, 2024 at 12:46 AM
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  5. jynx

    jynx Platinum Record

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    Yup Piecing a track together properly is bloody hard work!!
     
    jynx, Jun 25, 2024 at 12:56 AM
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  6. Lad Impala

    Lad Impala Platinum Record

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    That's an interesting question.

    Some people will say the loudness doesn't matter in that context. I think it does, the louder your track is the more distorted is gonna sound on streaming platforms, after they normalize it. It is not something everyone notices though.
     
    Lad Impala, Jun 25, 2024 at 1:00 AM
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