Support and discussion for all of Akai’s modern standalone MPCs including the MPC X / X SE, MPC Live 1, 2 & 3, MPC One / One+, MPC Key 37/61.
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By QuentinB Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:48 pm
Oh I'm definitely soaking up all of this knowledge and trying to understand. When it comes to that chart, -1 on soundcloud, does that mean I'd want to crank my master up a db or two before exporting if I'm uploading there? Or is it more complicated than that?
By CharlesRandolph Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:49 pm
NearTao wrote:At least one thing to notice from the chart above (and you can see this all over the place such as TV, radio etc...)... is the Soundcloud -1 peak, well a lot of platforms will drop your volume down a db or so because then when they sell advertisements they can make them sound overall louder by removing the peak/cap from advertisements, so that they will get the listener's attention more. It might sound silly, but this has been the case in countless services, and there are plenty of psychological studies to show that it does indeed cue a listener to pay more attention. Annoying? Certainly! Something you can control? Well not directly, but again... depends how much you want to chase the rabbit versus just making your own music. If you're trying to figure out how to get 100,000 impressions versus 200,000 impressions... then yeah worth the time... but if you're just trying to get from 5 impressions to 10 impressions... then it's not like it's putting more change in your pocket.

Honestly, it's all good stuff to know, but on the other hand some of the info here is really only relevant if you're going to be making substantial revenue from target platforms.

EDIT: Also just wanted to note, you're getting a lot of good info here for sure... and goes to show how diverse a background a lot of folks have here. Definitely take notes on what is valuable to you in your current journey into music... and don't be afraid to ignore stuff that you don't care about it... some of it just doesn't have meaning to you now, and it may not in the future... and that is okay. Also it's totally normal for some of this stuff to not matter to you today and you'll have that "ah, now I know what they were talking about" moment in the future.


Yes, that the same technique used for host/interviewer, make sure the host mic is louder, so they sound more authoritative. If you have a free account, sound-cloud throttles the bandwidth. But if a person is just doing this as a hobby, with no drive to make it a profession. Then 95% of what I saying, doesn't pertain to them because their in a different state of mind.

My mentors told me, "If you're serious we can talk, but if your not serious then don't waste my time or your time." :smoker:
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By NearTao Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:53 pm
Well for soundcloud as an example... think about it as a ceiling. No matter how loud you make your track, they will never let you get any louder. So for example, you could compress your audio to make it sound overall louder, but then you're sacrificing dynamics to sound louder... at the expense of removing potential emotional nuance.

Personally... and this is just me... I wouldn't take those as a signal to "make it louder"... but instead consider it as a "you've been put on notice" that it's ever so slightly more important to properly normalize, mix, and master your content... because if you don't... folks that have done this will ever so slightly sound louder and "better"... the reason I'm scare quoting better there is because for me, it is not a race to the top... and since there is a ceiling there... you're not going to break it. With the right query in YouTube you can definitely find "loudest of" tracks... and yeah you will notice that they are loud... but they also sound like hot garbage. Again... it's not something you're going to win... unless you know what the proper definition of winning is for yourself.
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By NearTao Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:03 pm
CharlesRandolph wrote:My mentors told me, "If you're serious we can talk, but if your not serious then don't waste my time or your time." :smoker:


Heh... yeah it's why I think some of the info here is navel gazing and probably doesn't *really* matter to OP... but opinions are cheap and it's always good to see somebody soaking in the info to make their own informed decision, whether any of us agree with it or not :D.

I used to worry about a lot of this stuff myself... but I don't butter my bread in the music industry... so it was easier for me to say "you know what... I don't care anymore" and just go goof off and do my own thing. I've got thousands of unfinished tracks and I'm totally cool with not making a dime off of any of it.
By CharlesRandolph Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:04 pm
QuentinB wrote:Oh I'm definitely soaking up all of this knowledge and trying to understand. When it comes to that chart, -1 on soundcloud, does that mean I'd want to crank my master up a db or two before exporting if I'm uploading there? Or is it more complicated than that?


They're going to place a limiter on the music due to governmental regulation in the different countries. Read about this to better understand what is going on.

https://www.itu.int/dms_pubrec/itu-r/rec/bs/R-REC-BS.1770-4-201510-I!!PDF-E.pdf
https://nugenaudio.com/files/manuals/VisLM2%20Manual.pdf
By CharlesRandolph Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:09 pm
NearTao wrote:Heh... yeah it's why I think some of the info here is navel gazing and probably doesn't *really* matter to OP... but opinions are cheap and it's always good to see somebody soaking in the info to make their own informed decision, whether any of us agree with it or not :D.

I used to worry about a lot of this stuff myself... but I don't butter my bread in the music industry... so it was easier for me to say "you know what... I don't care anymore" and just go goof off and do my own thing. I've got thousands of unfinished tracks and I'm totally cool with not making a dime off of any of it.


100% To me it's interesting, but I've never played the loudness war, so I never had to worry about it. Plus most consumer devices have a -2 db limiter on them anyway. That's why so many audiophiles love the first iPod because of no limiter and the DAC. :popcorn:
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By NearTao Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:10 pm
Reading through the first link is reminding me why I was shaking my fist mixing background music for audio books. Stupid LUFS/LKFS... stupid government regulations :D

EDIT: Also OP... don't be afraid to tell us to shut up on topics... I fear we've gone *way* off topic...
By CharlesRandolph Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:19 pm
NearTao wrote:Reading through the first link is reminding me why I was shaking my fist mixing background music for audio books. Stupid LUFS/LKFS... stupid government regulations :D

EDIT: Also OP... don't be afraid to tell us to shut up on topics... I fear we've gone *way* off topic...


It was Europe that put the kabash on the loudness war. People blasting their ear drums, with these mobile devices using those ear buds. Hearing loss is on the rise. Then you have all these mastering engineers, making everything so damn loud, it should be considered a criminal act.
By CharlesRandolph Fri Oct 23, 2020 2:43 pm
NearTao wrote:Oh yeah, especially kids... I know I absolutely caused myself more damage than reasonable from a few concerts back in the day.


At least with these standards we can get back to nice, dynamic mixes. :nod:
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By QuentinB Fri Oct 23, 2020 3:51 pm
Oh man, I'm learning a lot, I would say we're still on topic. So all in all I need to just be mixing and mastering with my ears for creativity. Make sure I listen on a few devices, but beyond that external hosts are gonna tamper with sound. I'm definitely doing this as a hobby, but I'm also doing it seriously. Might not be hobby forever, and I'll be doing this the rest of my days probably, so I wanna do it right.
By CharlesRandolph Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:24 pm
QuentinB wrote:Oh man, I'm learning a lot, I would say we're still on topic. So all in all I need to just be mixing and mastering with my ears for creativity. Make sure I listen on a few devices, but beyond that external hosts are gonna tamper with sound. I'm definitely doing this as a hobby, but I'm also doing it seriously. Might not be hobby forever, and I'll be doing this the rest of my days probably, so I wanna do it right.


Get a good headphone amp and take ear breaks.
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By Lampdog Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:51 pm
QuentinB wrote:I'd want to crank my master up a db or two before exporting if I'm uploading there? Or is it more complicated than that?



Put “air maximizer“ on master channel to compensate for any previous path gain losses.
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By QuentinB Fri Oct 23, 2020 8:34 pm
Lampdog wrote:
QuentinB wrote:I'd want to crank my master up a db or two before exporting if I'm uploading there? Or is it more complicated than that?



Put “air maximizer“ on master channel to compensate for any previous path gain losses.


Yessir, was just looking at the Air Maximizer, I'm experimenting with the Air Channel strip and Air Maximizer on the Master output. Seems to liven things up quite a bit, at least on the track I'm testing it on.