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Re: The mystery of why music DVDs often don't sound great!

I wish I could say that this surprises me, but it does not.
The bi problem, as pointed out, is overcompression.
THROW AWAY those Finalizers, maximizers or any other -izers, drop the PPM metering & go over to using K-20 for multichannel & we will begin to get a bit of sanity back.
I sincerely hope that multichannel DVD-A does not end up going the same way, although it probaby will.

This has been a pet peeve of mine for some time now, and things have got to the point where if we get a client wanting us to do this, we will try & point out why it is such a bad idea. Lets face it - if you think it's too quiet, then turn up the ****ing amplifier - it is what it is there for.

Have a look also at www.loudnessrace.net for more examples.

BTW - we would rather tell a potential client to go elsewhere than do this to perfectly innocent, unsuspecting music. I mean, why go to all the trouble & effort of getting everything just right to crucify it like this?

Finally, mix engineers are also to blame here. STOP automatically using compression on the mix buss. If it takes a compressor on the MIX to make things sit right, then you have got it badly wrong somewhere else.
Compression should only ever be applied across the mix in mastering, and only then at a ratio of no higher than 1.2:1 at best.
As for those damned brickwall limiters - bin them, or relegate to doorstops.

If you monitor correctly, or even take a round trip to analogue in the chain, you don't need them anyway. Mix to no more than -3dBFS, and remember the maxim

"it's not about how loud you make it, it's about how you make it loud"
www.opusproductions.com
Multichannel Audio Specialists


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  • Re: The mystery of why music DVDs often don't sound great! - Neil Wilkes 06:44:20 06/12/04 (0)


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