#trvepeakstudio

[trvepeak-blog]

“Glitter” by Oh Brother.

Mastered by yours truly.

[trvepeak-blog]

Chords

I’m not the author of this post, all credit goes to Native Instruments where this was orignally released. However, I felt like sharing it, cause it is never a bad thing to educate yourself, especially for free! So please enjoy and share the original article at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or what ever social media you are using, thank you. :-)

For the sake of clarity I split it into seven parts (which would be a perfect fifth in half steps btw). The next one is in bold letters:

Music Theory for Electronic Dance Music

Signatures and Scales

Counting Music

Intervals

Chords

Notes, Octaves, Staffs, Clefs

Harmony

[SOURCE]

Chords

Hack Music Theory’s Ray Harmony provides a masterclass on chord progression, showing you how to use root and key notes within your first melodic composition. How to create emotion, movement, and power motifs in your music are all topics covered in the first of several masterclasses offered by the music apprenticeship program.

[trvepeak-blog]

Intervals

I’m not the author of this post, all credit goes to Native Instruments where this was orignally released. However, I felt like sharing it, cause it is never a bad thing to educate yourself, especially for free! So please enjoy and share the original article at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or what ever social media you are using, thank you. :-)

For the sake of clarity I split it into seven parts (which would be a perfect fifth in half steps btw). The next one is in bold letters:

Music Theory for Electronic Dance Music

Signatures and Scales

Counting Music

Intervals

Chords

Notes, Octaves, Staffs, Clefs

Harmony

[SOURCE]

Intervals

Rick Beato lays down the basics behind intervals; “the building blocks of polyphonic music”. Pinpointing differences between melodic and harmonic intervals, Beato also goes on to discuss keys and chords, and how all the three work together.

[trvepeak-blog]

Counting Music

I’m not the author of this post, all credit goes to Native Instruments where this was orignally released. However, I felt like sharing it, cause it is never a bad thing to educate yourself, especially for free! So please enjoy and share the original article at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or what ever social media you are using, thank you. :-)

For the sake of clarity I split it into seven parts (which would be a perfect fifth in half steps btw). The next one is in bold letters:

Music Theory for Electronic Dance Music

Signatures and Scales

Counting Music

Intervals

Chords

Notes, Octaves, Staffs, Clefs

Harmony

[SOURCE]

Counting Music

DJTLM introduces the basics to timing, by explaining what beats, bars, and phrases are in relation to time signatures. By using some homemade sketches put together on MASCHINE, TLM runs through the basic principles of timing within music, perhaps the most important starting point to understanding music theory.

[trvepeak-blog]

Found a great video about Gain Staging done by Behind The Speakers which I would like to share. :-) In short: It’s about getting your volume levels right before you start mixing. Of course you can also use it while your in a session if it totally got out of control volume wise... This way you can prevent clipping inside the Plug-Ins you use as well as creating a lot of headroom (which is nice and important for mastering) and keeping your faders around the 0 dBFS mark.

[trvepeak-blog]

[Grammy Special] Mix Analysis #7 “Lazarus” by David Bowie

FOREWORD

Welcome to article number two of a ten part series about the last ten winners of the Grammy for „Best Engineered Album“! This time my mix analysis will be about „Lazarus“ off of David Bowie’s Album „★“. The first article was about Bruno Mars’ „That’s What I Like“, which was surprisingly dynamic for such a big release but also suffered from noticeable compression and unnecessary loudness. Here’s a list of all winning records:

2018 - “24k Magic” by Bruno Mars 2017 - “Blackstar” by David Bowie 2016 - “Sound & Color” by Alabama Shakes 2015 - “Morning Phase” by Beck 2014 - “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk 2013 - “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile 2012 - “Paper Airplane” by Alison Krauss & Union Station 2011 - “Battle Studies” by John Mayer 2010 - “Ellipse” by Imogen Heap

You can find A LOT of information about the person David Bowie but I will just leave you with a few anecdotes about his final album „★“ before we dive into the hard facts. Did you know David Bowie and his friend / producer Tony Visconti tried to „avoid Rock ’n’ Roll“ while creating this record and mentioned Kendrick Lamar’s „To Pimp A Butterfly“ as their biggest influence, as well as Boards Of Canada and Death Grips? Bowie also recruited a local Jazz band from New York for the recording sessions, who where completely unaware that he was suffering from liver cancer. This shines a completely different light on his lyrics, as he was actually facing death and reflecting about his own mortality.

Another interesting thing about this record is the CD and LP artwork. Lyrics were printed black on black with partial varnish so you can only read them in a certain angle. The whole packaging in general contains a lot of secrets and Easter eggs which can be found here. It’s also noteworthy the title track sounds almost the same played backwards and was originally longer than 9m 58s but shortened to meet iTunes restrictions. Which surprised me because a) how is it possible Apple tells David Bowie how long his music should be and b) there are a lot of songs on iTunes songs that go far beyond the 10 minute mark. Here’s why: Any song shorter than 10 minutes can be sold as a single and instantly downloaded, everything longer than that can only be purchased together with the whole record. Which is standard on this platform but not mandatory so they could have kept the original length of "Lazarus".

Before we start the mix analysis I would like to share a conspiracy theory I came across during my research. It’s about David Bowie predicting his own death, as well as the birth of Kanye West… There you go: The David Bowie & Kanye West Conspiracy Theory, Explained

HARD FACTS

Record Label: ISO, RCA, Columbia, Sony

Year of Release: 2016

Duration: 06 m 22 s

PSR: ~ 10.0 (lowest) ~ 6.0 (highest)

Average Loudness: -8.0 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: 0.4 dBTP (left) 0.6 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: 0.0 dBFS (left) 0.0 dBFS (right)

Mixing Engineer:  David Bowie, Tony Visconti

Mastering Engineer: Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound

For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

Furthermore I recommend reading and / or downloading the “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” released in 2017 by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Grammys. Which is not only a very helpful and well structured guideline for modern audio production but also a reference I will mention a few times.

After listening to the record you can tell the production is very loud, thick and direct. Looking at the waveform confirms what we’ve heard: Those are heavily compressed audio files with drastically increased loudness. Ok, it’s always possible to make it even louder and add more compression but the sound of „★“ is quite intense. The average loudness of „Lazarus“ is -8.0 LKFS which is -6.0 LU louder than the standard of -14.0 LKFS at Spotify and YouTube! This master is not only way too hot for streaming services but also for a CD in my opinion. Digital peaks are taken care of with a brick wall limiter at 0.0 dbFS but Inter-Sample Peaks reach up to 0.6 dbTP. And I’m asking myself again how a record like this could win a Grammy for „Best Engineered Album“…

My guess is the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honors the work of David Bowie and this album in particular with this award, despite the sound quality. Don’t get me wrong, this record doesn’t sound bad at all, cause the production fits the vibe of the record like a glove. As previously mentioned, Bowie is reflecting a lot about his on death and mortality and therefore the lack of dynamic creates a very dense atmosphere and delivers the message directly to the listener. So the production - how „bad“ it may be - emphasis the musical and lyrical content and is therefore completely legit.

The beginning of „Lazarus“ leaves a lot of space for Kick, Snare and that sort of mono Guitar in the center of the mix before the Bass comes in and fills everything with it’s warm sounding low end. Bowie’s voice sits on top of the mix and sounds very direct and bright. Wind instruments are panned left and right but not to far though. There’s a certain effect during the verses that sounds like a stereo Guitar with a heavy Bitcrusher on it. Love it! If you listen closely, you can here very subtle layers of atmospheric synthesizers during the whole song which are glueing everything together and make this song whole. On of the last instruments you hear on „Lazarus“ is an electric Guitar on the far right in the stereo field with a super duper hard attack and some slapback echo on it.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

I’m not a fan of the excessively loud and heavily compressed production style on „★“. Giving his love for experimentation, detail and experience, I was expecting a rather audiophile record, cause we are talking about David Bowie here! But for the following reasons I can understand why he chose this particular sound for the record:

Remember how I mentioned earlier Bowie and Visconti tried to „avoid Rock ’n’ Roll“ and said „To Pimp A Butterfly“ by Kendrick Lamar was a big influence while creating this record? So it’s not surprising at all you can hear how the Jazz found it’s way on the album. Yet every Jazz connoisseur would freak out if a record of this genre would be produced this way, so it makes perfect sense how „★“ sounds. As countless times before, Bowie is not meeting expectations and this is what makes him and his music so interesting.

Also the direct in-your-face sound emphasis the intimacy and honesty of the lyrics a lot, so honest it sometimes feels like he’s naked (metaphorically, not literally). This way you just can’t ignore the morbid and dark but sometimes hilarious and weird lyrics of him.

CONCLUSION

„★“ is a beautiful farewell gift to his fans but also to every listener of unconventional pop music with a strong Jazz influence. The production is very contemporary (loud and heavily compressed) and therefore creates a certain directness and intimacy between the listener and the music, which comes with a great CD and LP packaging by the way. Winning the Grammy for „Best Engineered Album“ though seems more like a gesture to honor the life and work of David Bowie rather than rewarding an completely audiophile recording.

[trvepeak-blog]

Signatures and Scales

I’m not the author of this post, all credit goes to Native Instruments where this was orignally released. However, I felt like sharing it, cause it is never a bad thing to educate yourself, especially for free! So please enjoy and share the original article at Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or what ever social media you are using, thank you. :-)

For the sake of clarity I split it into seven parts (which would be a perfect fifth in half steps btw). The next one is in bold letters:

Music Theory for Electronic Dance Music

Signatures and Scales

Counting Music

Intervals

Chords

Notes, Octaves, Staffs, Clefs

Harmony

[SOURCE]

Signatures and Scales

Ski Oakenfull from Point Blank Music hosts a special hangout session, running through the basics of key signatures and scales, and using examples to test out learnings. Breaking down the definition of minor and major keys, Ski also shows the application of scales in the recording process, while also touching upon the role of arpeggios in modern productions.

[trvepeak-blog]

Mix Analysis #4 “Fall Of The Ancient World” by Dan Terminus

FOREWORD

In this article I will do a mix analysis of “Fall Of The Ancient World” from Dan Terminus' recent album “Automated Refrains”, which is available here for free on Bandcamp! The genre is called Synthwave and can be described as followed: Kick, Snare, Hi Hat, Toms and additional percussion are most of the time Roland 909 or 808 samples and the range goes from very relaxed, chill and atmospheric (FM-84, S U R V I V E, Gunship, Timecop1983) to fast, up beat and hard hitting (MASTER BOOT RECORD, PERTURBATOR, GosT, Carpenter Brut).

Despite several different styles within the Synthwave genre, all of the mentioned artists are using sounds and elements that were very popular during the 80s and therefore create a feeling of nostalgia and retro while listening to it. Also 9 times of 10 you can dance to the music, no matter how hard or soft it is.

Although referencing the 80s in all it's glory more or less, the music doesn't sound like it's been recorded (nearly) 40 years ago, because it applies the standards of modern music production of 2017. Especially the more aggressive tunes have quite sophisticated songwriting and are mastered very loud, like MASTER BOOT RECORD, whose Synthesizers sound so harsh and distorted they could be actual guitars.

The most fascinating thing about this music is, that the general loudness of the recordings are pushed to the limit, almost completely brick walled and yet it's possible to enjoy it, cause it doesn't feel forced but like a natural thing to do. Which is weird, cause I'm not a friend of killing dynamics and transforming WAV form into a sausage but with this music it makes sense somehow. So let's take a look / listen at it!

HARD FACTS

PLR: ~ 9.5 (lowest) ~ 7.0 (highest)

Average Loudness: -7.6 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: 0.8 dBTP (left) 0.7 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: -0.0 dBFS (left) -0.0 dBFS (right)

Mix: Dan Terminus Master: Dan Terminus

Year Of Release: 2017 For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

As expected, the WAV form of “Fall Of The Ancient World” is a big, fat, juicy sausage. Digital Peak is at -0.0 dBFS on both channels, which is standard for this kind of music. Unfortunately there are Inter-Sample Peaks up to 0.8 dBTP which could have been avoided with a fitting Limiter (like the ISL 2 by Nugen Audio) and more attention during the mastering process.

The average loudness of the song is at -7.6 LKFS, which is more or less irrelevant on Compact Disc but wouldn't work with streaming platforms like Spotify or YouTube considering their maximum limit is -14.0 LKFS. If you would upload it like this, it could be turned down by around 6 dB!

Even during the quietest part of the song (the intro) the PLR is pretty high and goes up only a little to 7.0 during the louder parts. Which shows again how important loudness is to the artist even when things could be more quiet.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

It wasn't really hard to pick this song, cause unlike other material on “Automated Refrains”, this one's got a serious “Das Boot” vibe going on, which I really like. Unfortunately this is the only time Dan Terminus is doing it on the record and I wish he would have kept it going. Instead he uses the “typical” Synthwave schemes, which dominate the rest of the record and make the second half feel a little boring and repetitive.

This is something I noticed about other artists from this genre as well. If you listen to the songs out of context, they feel a lot different, fresher I would say. But if you're listening to them after you already heard five tracks (or so), it's somehow exhausting and not interesting anymore. This could be the reason why some of the “big names” started incorporating singers to make their tracks stand out and be more memorable. Most of the time the song benefits from it but I also heard a few ones that were ruined by uninspired vocal melodies and should have been left alone.

A few words about the mix: The single elements aren't really distributed across the stereo field, the more accurate term would be stretched. They're all on the same line and right in your face but the synthesizers sound super wide though. Only those “Das Boot” sounds give a feeling of room and depth.

CONCLUSION

“Automated Refrains” by Dan Terminus is - compared to his previous work - more atmospheric and slower but unfortunately during the second half a bit boring due to a lack of diversity. If you're interested in what it sounds like when he puts the pedal to the medal listen to “The Wrath Of Code”!

The production is very modern and bright, super loud and in your face. Except the Intro it's constantly peaking at -0.0 dBFS which isn't nice but typical for this kind of music. Would have been cool though if he at least avoided those Inter-Sample Peaks which go up to 0.8 dBTP.

[trvepeak-blog]

[Grammy Special] Mix Analysis #6 “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars

FOREWORD

This is part one of my Grammy Special where I will do a mix analysis of track from a record awarded for „Best Engineered Album“. We will start in 2018, going back all the way to 2010. Here’s the full list:

2018 - “24k Magic” by Bruno Mars 2017 - “Blackstar” by David Bowie 2016 - “Sound & Color” by Alabama Shakes 2015 - “Morning Phase” by Beck 2014 - “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk 2013 - “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile 2012 - “Paper Airplane” by Alison Krauss & Union Station 2011 - “Battle Studies” by John Mayer 2010 - “Ellipse” by Imogen Heap

Every now and then I will refer to “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Grammys cause there are a few discrepancies between this document and the awarded recording. After all the name suggests that only flawless audio recordings can win in this category but in my personal opinion only one of ten records deserves this trophy.

I will also provide more information and pictures from now on, as I felt that previous articles were lacking depth and justing scratching the surface. Therefore you will also find specific information about release date, duration, a music video (if available), record label as well as more pictures.

In this article I will analyze the mix of Bruno Mars’ „That’s What I Like“ off of his album „24k Magic“. Among „Best Engineered Album“ it also won in the categories “Record Of The Year”, “Album Of The Year”, “Song Of The Year”, “Best R&B Performance”, “Best R&B Song” and “Best R&B Album”.

The difference between „Album Of The Year“ and „Record Of The Year“ wasn’t very clear to me to begin with but after a closer look I found out that the latter is about a single song. Then again, why is there a category called „Song Of The Year“? Different category, same content, right…? This won’t be last contradiction I discovered during my research.

HARD FACTS

Record Label: Atlantic Records

Year of Release: 2016

Duration: 03 m 27 s

PSR: ~ 11.0 (lowest) ~ 8.0 (highest)

Average Loudness: -9.1 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: 1.3 dBTP (left) 0.8 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: -0.0 dBFS (left) -0.0 dBFS (right)

Mixing Engineer:  Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios

Mastering Engineer: Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound

For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

Furthermore I recommend reading and / or downloading the “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” released in 2017 by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Grammys. Which is not only a very helpful and well structured guideline for modern audio production but also a reference I will mention a few times.

As you can tell by the waveform, Sterling Sound pushed the loudness of the audio material quite a bit without sacrificing to much of the dynamic and transients. If you would zoom in you could see that actually a lot of it is still intact. It also has that certain „snap“ you can only hear when the signal is not completely squashed and over-compressed. Yet the average loudness is at -9.1 LKFS which I would consider a „hot“ master. If this would be played back through Spotify or YouTube the overall loudness would be lowered by -4.9 LU to match their peak at -14.0 LKFS, which is a shame cause this brilliant sounding mix / master doesn’t need to be this loud.

There are no Digital Peaks occurring but Inter-Sample Peaks reach up to 1.3 dbTP! And we’re talking about a record that was awarded „Best Engineered Album“ and mastered at one of the world’s most renowned Studios. It’s even more baffling considering the fact that page 24 of “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” tells us how to avoid errors, clipping, and distortion during internal digital signal processing.

This raises the question if it’s really about a flawless, stellar sounding record from a technical point of view or actually about rewarding the most popular artist for being the most popular artist. Vice versa this would create a lot more attention for the Grammys, so both sides win, am I right?

Back to the hard facts: The bass frequencies are pushed pretty good but without sounding boomy, it’s more like a nice, warm blanket of bass covering your ear drums. There’s a small but very wide dip in the mid frequency range and the high end has been boosted very gentle. It doesn’t sound harsh or bright, more like silk. The compression makes everything sound very thick and in your face but therefore sacrificing some dynamic. The music in general is very percussive, even melodic instruments like the synthesizers are emphasizing the drums, which makes every song on „24k Magic“ danceable! The overall sound is very clean (not steril), clear, punchy and is just what you would expect from a Bruno Mars record.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

If you didn’t grow up in the 90s (unlike me) or don’t like the music coming from that era, you’re probably not gonna like this record. If one of those two things apply to you, you’re in for a great 34 minute trip through nostalgia land! Clearly inspired by the sound of Michael Jackson’s „Dangerous“, Bruno Mars also pays tribute to his funk roots with his own impersonation of James Brown in „Perm“. The icing of the cake are the best sounds of 80s synthesizers and vocoders you can imagine.

Thematically „24k Magic“ is also using classic structures of this era: Starting with the uplifting party / happy songs, slowing down with some ballads worshipping women, gaining some tempo again with faster tracks and closing the whole thing with a ballad. This record is full of great harmonies and hook lines that’ll be stuck in your head for days! Besides „Best Engineered Album“, every other Grammy is well deserved in my opinion.

CONCLUSION

„24k Magic“ is a great album celebrating the sound of the 90s with huge influences coming from the 80s and adds a little funk of the 60s / 70s here and there. Regarding sound it’s more of a contemporary record, especially when it comes to unnecessary loudness and compression (which can be heard sometimes). Would be interesting to know if this was a conscious decision by Tom Coyne or if Atlantic Records and / or Bruno Mars pushed him to increase loudness.

[trvepeak-blog]

Mix Analysis #5 “Coolverine” by Mogwai

FOREWORD

It took Mogwai 10 seconds after “Coolverine” started to drag me back into their very own world. That's all the time they need to create that special feeling I only get when Iistening to their music, which sounds mysterious, indefinable and brings up contradictive emotions like hope and resignation and mixes them all together. No matter what instruments they use or which keys they play in, they will always sound like Mogwai. That special sound is a part of my life and sort of soundtrack to it since the release of “The Hawk Is Howling” in 2008.

When I listen to “Music For A Forgotten Future (The Singing Mountain)” from 2011's “Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will” for example, it will always remind me of a very, very rainy walk in the park while I listened to it. Or “I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead” of “The Hawk Is Howling” which brings up memories of long nocturnal highways in North Germany. Anyway, enough of the sentimentality, let's put “Coolverine” under the microscope!

HARD FACTS

PLR: ~ 10.0 (lowest) ~ 5.0 (highest)

Average Loudness: -9.3 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: -0.6 dBTP (left) -1.1 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: -0.6 dBFS (left) -0.6 dBFS (right)

Mix: Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios

Master: Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios

Year of Release: 2017 For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

The waveform shows a compromise between most possible loudness and preservation of dynamics and transients. This can be confirmed after running it through Nugen Audio's MasterCheck Pro. The PLR is high but normal for a band of this genre. The average loudness of -9.3 LKFS isn't very low either but given the fact it's a CD Master not that fatal. This value is very important though, when it comes down to mastering for streaming services like Spotify or YouTube. From a technical standpoint it's an excellent example of how to treat your music: No Inter-Sample Peaks, nor digital peaks and even some headroom left!

“Coolverine” may sound like a simple, monotonous, repetitive song but there is a lot to discover if you're willing / able to take the time to do so. For example the iconic tremolo guitar at the beginning of the song on the right channel, the tastefully placed reversed snares and the ever changing sound of the drums: First “normal”, then very distorted and after that only the room signal but still distorted. After a short break, the drums come back with a super hard panned Ping Pong Delay on the snare. Delicious! The climax of the last part gets even more intense with the subtle choir underneath it and the direct, slightly distorted overall sound.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

To me, “Coolverine” is one of three highlights on “Every Country's Sun”, the other two being “Party In The Dark” and “Don't Believe The Fife”. The rest of the record is solid but those tracks really pop out. “Party In The Dark” for example is the most danceable pop song Mogwai ever wrote without sacrificing their musical identity. “Don't Believe The Fife” starts reluctant but slowly raises the suspense curve and explodes into a big, intense finale which repeats the theme of the song with full intensity.

CONCLUSION

“Coolverine” is not only one of the best songs on “Every Country's Sun” but also an ideal compromise between loudness and preservation of dynamics without falling victim to the loudness war. Mogwai are leading by example that loudness is not an indicator for success but a well written song which was treated with care and the listener in mind during mixing and mastering.

[trvepeak-blog]

Mix Analysis #3 “6 Inch” by Beyoncé

FOREWORD

I never would have thought that I would buy a Beyoncé CD, nor writing an article about it. Too many times I was tortured during long drives in my mothers car with a Destiny's Child Best Of (?), which is why I was never interested in her solo material. Of course I was aware that she was releasing music, cause you can't escape the great hits which are played literally everywhere. Still, I wasn't actively following her output, except for "Crazy In Love" which is a freaking banger.

This time I will analyze the song “6 Inch” off of her second visual* album “Lemonade”, which was released on April 23rd 2016 after the world premiere on HBO. But why do I write one and a half years later about it? A good friend of mine recommended this album VERY MUCH shortly after it's release to me but as I mentioned before I wasn't very interested in the music Beyoncé was putting out, so I forgot about it. Originally I wanted to analyze recent music but it made no sense financially to buy a CD of 15 € for one song, so I decided only to buy CDs worth 9 € or less.

So when I spotted “Lemonade” on sale I remembered his words, bought it and didn't regret it! What an album!! Although I won't cover the lyrical content cause this has been discussed generously all over the internet. I will only talk about the technical aspects, as usual. Yet I highly recommend to do some research about it, cause it's not clear if she is doing real talk or using a character to tell the story. She's also switching from third person to first person, which makes it even more interesting.

* A ��visual album” is a record that comes with a video for each song. Her first album of this kind was “Beyoncé”, released in 2013.

HARD FACTS

PLR: ~ 8.0 (lowest) ~ 11.0 (highest)

Average Loudness: -10.4 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: 0.3 dBTP (left) 0.4 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: 0.0 dBFS (left) 0.0 dBFS (right)

Mix: Tony Maserati Master: Dave Kutch at The Mastering Palace

Year of Release: 2016 For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

Before I'll talk about the nerdy stuff, I'd like to introduce you the composers of “6 Inch”:

WRITTEN BY ABEL “THE WEEKND” TESFAYE, BEYONCÉ, DANNY SCHOFIELD, BEN DIEHL, TERIUS “THE-DREAM” NASH, AHMAD “BELLY” BALSHE, BOOTS, DAVE PORTNER, NOAH LENNOX, BRIAN WEITZ, BURT BACHARACH, HAL DAVID

[SOURCE]

A whole dozen worked on this song but probably not at the same time and I assume everyone contributed bits and pieces to it. I also assume that The-Dream did the majority of the writing, giving his composer credits.

Right to begin with the kick pushes the meters to 0.0 dBFS which will be the loudest signal during the entire song. There are also Inter-Sample Peaks up to 0.3 dBTP (left) and 0.4 dBTP, which isn't nice but also not super dramatic. It could have been avoided though and I don't really understand why a mix and / or master need to be pushed so hard that it clips. I mean... what's the point? It would've also sounded fine if the overall volume was 1 dB quieter.

The mix itself is pretty dynamic and has a lot of transients and a very smooth, silk sounding high end which isn't harsh or too bright. It also sounds huge and larger than life but what else would you expect? Lead vocals, Kick, Snare and Hi-Hat are centered in the middle while reverb tails of the voice are sounding very wide, as well as the backing vocals and background effects, which are wandering in the stereo field. I never had the impression that something sounds too quiet or too loud, it's just a well balanced, top notch sounding mix by Tony Maserati, whose list of credits is as long as the one of The-Dream.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

It wasn't easy to pick only one song cause they're all stylistically very different but still fit very well into the context of the record. Other favorites of mine are “Don't Hurt Yourself” (featuring Jack White), “Sorry”, “Daddy Lessons” as well as “Freedom” (featuring Kendrick Lamar). I chose “6 Inch” cause I'm a fan of The Weeknd (who's on this track) and Beyoncé sounds super gangster using her low, slightly auto-tuned voice.

“Lemonade” is an incredible album, not just a compilation of hit singles. This was even more clear to me after seeing the same-named movie which comes with the CD. Some of the songs are very fractured in the movie and often supplemented by quoting poems of Warsan Shire's “Teaching my mother how to give birth”. As I mentioned before I'm also impressed how everything glues together so well musically, given the fact that every song is using (more or less) a different style.

CONCLUSION

Not much to say here, except I was very happy to hear / see that a release this big wasn't mastered to death by increasing the overall loudness too much and therefore sacrificing dynamics and transients. This makes “Lemonade” not only a very, very well written record but also a great sounding one. I still don't understand though why they had to push it so hard that it peaks at 0.0 dBFS cause it wasn't necessary at all.

[trvepeak-blog]

Mix Analysis #1 “The Same Asylum As Before” by Steven Wilson

FOREWORD

My first analysis is about a song from a person who inspired me so much that I wanted to become a sound engineer myself: „The Same Asylum As Before“ by Steven Wilson off of his album „To The Bone“. I’m a fan of his music since the 2005 release of Porcupine Tree’s „Deadwing“ and it was (and still is) „Arriving Somewhere But Not Here“ on this record that got me hooked.

In this article I will take a closer look at one of the songs of „To The Bone“ which is in a different way a progressive record. Instead of repeating the (well working) formula of it’s predecessors by writing long (or very long) prog rock songs with different time signatures and structures that go way beyond the typical ABAB scheme, he decided to focus completely on the perfect pop song. Not like recent EDM pop music, but more in the vein of bands like Talk Talk or even Abba, but without sounding outdated. So much to the introduction, let's have a look at the hard facts!

HARD FACTS

PLR: ~ 14 (lowest) ~ 7,5 (highest)

Average Loudness: -11,5 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: -0,1 dBTP (left) -0,2 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: -0,2 dBFS (left) -0,2 dBFS (right)

Mix: Steven Wilson Master: Tim Young at Metropolis

Year of Release: 2017 For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

As you can tell by the waveform, the recording has got a lot of transients and is very dynamic in general, which makes it a great listening experience because the change of the loud and quiet parts adds a lot of excitement to the song. Also the preservation of the transients makes it sound really snappy.

It’s peaking at -0,2 dBFS on both channels, which is fine cause this is a CD Master and regarding loudness you can go pretty crazy, as long as you take care of Inter-Sample Peaks, which could cause distortion when you’re listening to it through speakers. Highest Inter-Sample Peak is at -0,1 dBTP, which is also fine. All in all it’s not only a great sounding master, but also flawless from a technical point of view (in my opinion).

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

When I heard the first singles of „To The Bone“ I was slightly disappointed because I was expecting another huge progressive rock album like „HAND. CANNOT. ERASE.“ or „The Raven That Refused To Sing“. The super straight pop songwriting was unexpected but it’s not unusual at all for Steven Wilson, as he has proven countless times before with his solo project, Porcupine Tree and especially with Blackfield. The latter is so cheesy it hurts, seriously.

Also only one song hits the 3:30 mark on this album, so it’s still not a regular pop record by mainstream standards and “To The Bone” is only pop music in the context of his previous releases. I'm pretty sure a lot of fans will bitch about the simplicity of the songs but who cares; a great song is a great song is a great song!

CONCLUSION

Not only this song but the whole record is well produced and written and it’s a real treat to listen to it over and over again. It also shows how important it is to keep a certain amount of transients and dynamics in your music to make sure that it sounds good on any system, be it laptop speakers, smartphones, tablets or regular speakers. A good mix / master will always sound great no matter how bad the circumstances are.

[trvepeak-blog]

Explanation of various terms

For the sake of completeness, here are explanations of the various technical terms used in my articles:

PLR (Peak to Loudness Ratio)

PLR is a long-term measurement, giving you an overall value for a song, album or section of audio. Because online music streaming platforms use loudness management, or normalization, it’s an important factor in determining the playback level of your music on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and elsewhere.

[SOURCE]

Average Loudness (measured in LKFS or LUFS)

Loudness, K-weighted, relative to Full Scale (or LKFS) is a loudness standard designed to enable normalization of audio levels for delivery of broadcast TV and other video. Loudness units relative to Full Scale (or LUFS) is a synonym for LKFS that was introduced in EBU R128.

[SOURCE]

Inter-Sample Peaks (or True Peaks)

When we listen to the track in our DAW, we hear digital audio - it’s got the peak at 0dB. However, during the „digital to analog” conversion process, the signal gets transformed from „stepped samples” to a smooth audio wave.

The true peak of the audio waveform is lying between two measuring points (44.1kHz/s) and is not getting detected by your limiter. The audio wave curve goes above 0dB, which is distortion. It’s called an „inter-sample-peak” because the peak is created between digital samples.

[SOURCE]

Digital Peaks (measured in dBFS)

Decibels relative to full scale (dBFS) is a unit of measurement for amplitude levels in digital systems, such as pulse-code modulation (PCM), which have a defined maximum peak level. The unit is similar to the units dBov and dBO. 

The level of 0 dBFS is assigned to the maximum possible digital level. For example, a signal that reaches 50% of the maximum level has a level of −6 dBFS, which is 6 dB below full scale. Conventions differ for root mean square (RMS) measurements, but all peak measurements smaller than the maximum are negative levels. 

A digital signal that does not contain any samples at 0 dBFS can still clip when converted to analog form due to the signal reconstruction process interpolating between samples. This can be prevented by careful digital-to-analog converter circuit design.

[SOURCE]

[trvepeak-blog]

Introduction

Hi there,

my name is Steve and I’m a sound engineer (Trve Peak Studio) from Berlin, Germany. I love to talk about music all day and especially going into detail about audio production.

With “Trve Peak” I would like to share not only my personal opinion about a song (songwriting, impression of a mix / master in general) but also the hard facts like average loudness, peak level, stereo imaging and compatibility to lossy formats like MP3.

To achieve that, the kind people of Nugen Audio hooked me up with their essential, groundbreaking metering Plug-In MasterCheck Pro which I will use to illustrate what I’m talking about.

I will also use 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan by german company HOFA for checking the digital peaks. Another great Plug-In and it’s for free!

As DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I use Logic Pro X and the source material comes directly from CD with a resolution of 16 Bit and 44.1 kHz, unless mentioned otherwise.

There are two reasons why I started „Trve Peak“, the first one being it’s a lot of fun to analyze music from an objective, scientific perspective. The second one is to show that most releases of popular music from the last two decades (or so) aren’t that well produced, looking at it from the perspective just mentioned.

9 times out of 10 you won’t even notice though, but it’s interesting to see how often audio quality is sacrificed for a master that is just as loud as possible to make sure you’re heard. Which is not even necessary anymore, cause the big players of Music Streaming (Spotify and YouTube) introduced loudness standards that will automatically lower the volume of signals that surpassed a certain threshold. I will be more specific about that in my articles.

Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do! :-)

[trvepeak-blog]

[Grammy Special] Mix Analysis #9 “Sound & Color” by Alabama Shakes

FOREWORD

Let’s continue analyzing the last ten Grammy winners for „Best Engineered Album“, this time „Sound & Color“ off of the same-named Album by Alabama Shakes! In the first article we took a look / listen at „That’s What I Like“ by Bruno Mars, which was surprisingly dynamic (for a major release) but still suffered from unnecessary loudness and audible compression. Number two was „Lazarus“ by David Bowie, which used the complete lack of dynamic and a thick, heavy compression as stylistic device to intensify the listening experience. Here’s a list of the last ten winners:

2018 - “24k Magic” by Bruno Mars 2017 - “Blackstar” by David Bowie 2016 - “Sound & Color” by Alabama Shakes 2015 - “Morning Phase” by Beck 2014 - “Random Access Memories” by Daft Punk 2013 - “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile 2012 - “Paper Airplane” by Alison Krauss & Union Station 2011 - “Battle Studies” by John Mayer 2010 - “Ellipse” by Imogen Heap

After reading the very interesting and helpful „Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” by the Engineers & Producers Wing of the Grammys, I was curios to know if the winning records reflect any of those recommendations or if it’s just about the most popular record with the biggest sales numbers. After analyzing the music with MasterCheck Pro by Nugen Audio, I slowly started to think it’s the latter, as most of the music is clipping and has audible compression. Because how is it possible that a living legend like Bob Ludwig (who mastered „Sound & Color“) gives a go for a record that doesn’t comply to the guide lines he helped creating? We’ll find out very soon, as I had some sort of revelation what this award is really about while I wrote this text.

Before we dive into the mix analysis I would like to recommend reading this very interesting (and extensive) article by SoundOnSound about the production of „Sound & Color“, in which Shawn Everett talks about recording and mixing it: Inside Track: Alabama Shakes’ Sound & Color

HARD FACTS

Record Label: Rough Trade Records

Year of Release: 2015

Duration: 03 m 03 s

PSR: ~ 9.0 (lowest) ~ 6.0 (highest)

Average Loudness: -8.4 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: 0.1 dBTP (left) 0.0 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: -0.0 dBFS (left) -0.1 dBFS (right)

Mixing Engineer: Shawn Everett

Mastering Engineer: Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering Studios

For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article.

Furthermore I recommend reading and / or downloading the “Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production” released in 2017 by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Grammys. Which is not only a very helpful and well structured guideline for modern audio production but also a reference I will mention a few times.

The first third of „Sound & Color“ is pleasantly dynamic with a PSR of about 9.0 with a lot of headroom before a big jump to -0.0 dBFS happens. In this particular case it’s a stylistic choice instead of being super loud just for the sake of it and a really nice way to kick off the record and get the attention of the listener! This thick, warm compression is used on the whole record and brings out a lot of „dirt“, which creates a beautiful, intimate atmosphere and fits like a glove on the music of Alabama Shakes. Unfortunately there are Intersampe-Peaks up to 0.1 dBTP occurring during the track and average loudness is at -8.4 LKFS, which is very loud. For comparison: The maximum average loudness for an audio file uploaded to Spotify or YouTube is -14.0 LKFS, everything above will be turned down again until it reaches this value.

If you have the chance to listen to this song (or the whole record) on good speakers or headphones, you will be rewarded with a detailed, organic, real sounding listening experience which proofs what a great band Alabama Shakes is. It also shows how attentive and talented the responsible recording and mixing engineer Shawn Everett is. Just listen to all the noise coming from the vibraphone or the subtle, ascending strings before the whole band starts playing. The overall sound is compact and natural without sounding muffled or vintage, everything sounds very real, because the majority of the songs was played live in the studio.

As you can see by looking at the overview of the waveforms, almost all songs are heavily compressed, besides „This Feeling“. Which is not a good thing but this is how records are made these days and in this case it doesn’t effect sound quality in a negative way. I mentioned before that compression was used as a stylistic choice rather than just making it loud to be able to compete with other way too loud productions. It was used in a very gentle way, respecting the production and therefore emphasizes the musical message, if this makes any sense. It’s interesting this record won the Grammy for „Best Engineered Album“, despite the fact it’s heavily compressed and the loudness is pushed almost all the time to the (digital) limit. And then it dawned on me:

It’s not about honoring a clean, theoretically well produced record but one that was engineered / mixed in a very musical, creative and entertaining way. Looking at it from this perspective it makes sense that Bruno Mars, David Bowie and all the other records / responsible sound engineers won this award.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

I became a big fan of „Sound & Color“ while analyzing the song and writing this article, same goes for David Bowie’s „★“. Both are the most heard records from that list! The music could be described as Hi-Fi Garage Blues Pop Lo-Fi Rock, so it has a little bit of everything and all mixed together it sounds like Alabama Shakes. What impressed me the most is the extrem amount of detail regarding the sound, which let’s you discover something new every time you listen to it. And even if your listening environment isn’t ideal (smartphone, laptop, tablet) those songs are still well written and a lot of fun. Except for „The Greatest“, this makes no sense to me in the context of the record and is so annoying I have to skip it every time.

CONCLUSION

„Sound & Color“ by Alabama Shakes is a detailed sounding, thoughtfully produced record with a very detailed sonic image. Almost all the songs are heavily compressed but without compromising sound quality. In this particular case compression has been used as a stylistic device to bring up background noise and make it sound real, organic and a little bit dirty. This way it almost feels like your in the same room with the band, if you listen to it on good speakers or headphones.

Furthermore I came to the conclusion the Grammy for „Best Engineered Album“ isn’t about awarding technically flawless recordings but rather a creatively mixed one. Which makes sense when listening to the last two winning records by Bruno Mars and David Bowie, which are clipping and have audible compression and therefore are not flawless audio recordings in theory.

[trvepeak-blog]

Mix Analysis #2 “That Was Just Your Life” by Metallica

FOREWORD

It was September 13th 2008 when I first heard “Death Magnetic” by Metallica. This was one day after official release and the live-premiere of the record at O2 World Berlin in Germany. I don't know why, but I forgot to bring my earplugs to the concert and didn't get any at the venue, for whatever reason. Needles to say my eardrums where quite damaged the next day when I was listening to the record. And even with ringing ears I noticed that something was very wrong with the sound of it.

I was happy about the fact that they released new material after five years, but somehow I couldn't enjoy it. Neither with headphones, loudspeakers nor any other playback device it sounded pleasant, something was... wrong about it. So I started doing some research and found out that not only I'm feeling this way but also other listeners around the globe. A few weeks after release even big media became aware of this issue and confronted the band directly. And here's what Lars Ulrich had to say about the sound of “Death Magnetic”: “...it sounds fuckin' smokin'.” [SOURCE]

And I couldn't agree more, cause during me research I found out that this is what you would call a “hot master”. Which means that the volume of an audio signal is increased as much as physically possible to make it sound as loud as possible. I also learned lots of other terms like “Brickwall Limiting”, “Loudness War” and plenty of other ones which fascinated me so much, that I wanted to become a sound engineer myself to prevent records to sound as shitty as this one.

Therefore I will do a mix analysis of “That Was Just Your Life”, which not only kicks off the record, but in someway also started my work as a sound engineer and me writing for this blog.

HARD FACTS

PLR: ~ 13 (lowest) ~ 3,5 (highest)

Average Loudness: -4,6 LKFS

Inter-Sample Peaks: -0,4 dBTP (left) -0,4 dBTP (right)

Digital Peak: 0,0 dBFS (left) 0,0 dBFS (right)

Mix: Greg Fidelman, Andrew Scheps Master: Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound

Year of Release: 2008 For measuring the PLR, Average Loudness and Inter-Sample Peaks I used MasterCheck Pro by british company Nugen Audio. To keep it as neutral and simple as possible, I chose the „Optimal Master - Codec Only“ preset. For measuring the Digital Peak Level I used the 4U Meter, Fader & MS-Pan Plug-In by german company HOFA. The DAW used is Logic Pro X. The source material is 16 Bit and 44,1 kHz. If you want to now what all those fancy words mean, have a look at this article. Looking at the waveform makes it clear as day that this recording is IN! YOUR! FACE! The general peak is around -0,6 dBFS, while the end of the song peaks at 0,0 dBFS. This is even quieter than most recordings, which usually peak at -0,2 dBFS. But the average loudness of the song is at -4,6 LKFS, which is insanely loud! To put it in context: If you would upload that CD Master to Spotify (Loudness Standard is at -14 LKFS) it would be played back a lot quieter cause it is 9,4 LKFS above their limit.

To compensate an eventual loss of loudness and to make sure the record is louder than anything else on ANY playback device, they decided to push the high end a lot. This explains how a recording with a peak of -0,6 DBFS has an average loudness of -4,6 LKFS and sounds way louder than recordings with a peak of -0,2 DBFS. Or the less technical explanation: This recording is technically not very loud but it sounds louder than anything else. This can be explained by the Fletcher-Munson-Curve:

“At low listening volumes – mid range frequencies sound more prominent, while the low and high frequency ranges seem to fall into the background.

At high listening volumes – the lows and highs sound more prominent, while the mid range seems comparatively softer. “ [SOURCE]

This way you can hear most of the song even at low volume, except bass information. Unfortunately the high end frequencies of “Death Magnetic” are so pushed to the edge, that it's simply not possible to listen to the whole record at high volume without damaging your ears. But do you want to listen to metal at low volume? Of course not!

If you listen to “Master Of Puppets”, you will immediately notice how dynamic and pleasant the production of this record is. The louder you listen to it, the better it sounds! Which makes sense, cause it was released in 1986 and digital audio processing and the loudness war that would come with it where still far away. Also people were listening to music on Cassettes, Vinyl or CD back then and not on cell phones, tablets, laptop speakers or any other shitty playback device which made it even more important to make it sound good.

By the way, if you want to listen to a more dynamic and not distorted version of “Death Magnetic”, I would recommend several unofficial remasters made by source material coming from the video game Guitar Hero. Strict requirements regarding the quality and volume of the audio files forced them to deliver so called Stems of the Drum, Bass, Guitar and Vocal tracks, which sounded much better than this CD Master. After the release of the game, smart people extracted those audio files and made new mixes of the album, “Moderus III” and “MARCKIII” being the most popular ones.

PERSONAL IMPRESSION

Despite the fact the production of the album made it nearly impossible to listen to it, I had a good time listening to “Death Magnetic” cause it had a lot of solid and very good moments. But those songs suffer the same problem the songs on “St. Anger” have: They are too long. They would have been just fine without a third verse, a second solo and a long instrumental part at the end. I think the popular ABAB-scheme is what made “Metallica” (aka the black album) so good and listenable in the first place. I'd rather have a short and sweet record about 30 minutes long than some artificially stretched 70 minute album that bores me to death AND is getting on my nerves at the same time.

Listening to the unofficial mixes shows that the production is solid, although I always thought that since “Metallica” the Kick was too loud, which is still the case on this album. The guitars sound a bit thin and harsh, even on the “good” mixes. Vocals sit perfect in the mix, not too loud, nor too quiet.

CONCLUSION

“Death Magnetic” is the perfect example that it doesn't matter what Metallica release as long as their name is on the product. The songwriting has improved significantly compared to “St. Anger” but the whole record is not easy to listen to because of the horrible production. Also Ulrich and Hetfield seem to have forgotten when a song is done, so they keep adding and adding and adding parts.

The (bad) sound of the record is influencing the listening experience so much that people didn't pay attention to the music anymore, but to the production. Which is the worst case scenario for a sound engineer, cause you should be able to enjoy the music without being distracted or disturbed by sound issues. It became such a big problem that even media outlets asked the band why the record sounds this way, fans made their own (better sounding) mixes of “Death Magnetic” and even started a petition to get the record remastered!

On the other hand it's very interesting to see / hear how they've achieved such great loudness by pushing certain frequencies very hard to make sure it's the loudest thing you'll hear no matter where you listen to it.