I had no idea Spotify's limiter sounded so BAD...
I've known about Spotify's limiter for years. Here's the funny thing, though - I never really listened to it... until now. At first, they applied it to everything – which was bad. Then, they switched...
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Why I hate my plugin’s newest feature!
Honestly, I struggled with this. Because so many people could use it as as a reason to do the exact opposite of what I recommend. What am I talking about ? It’s the new feature in my Loudness Penalty...
View ArticleLoudness Penalty 2 – Spotify Limiter emulation and more
I'm excited to announce the release of Version 2 of my Loudness Penalty plugin. It was never meant to be a plugin – we originally made the website to help answer the most frequent question people kept...
View ArticleIs the new Foo Fighters album TOO distorted ?
Foo Fighters just released their new album "Your Favourite Toy", and right away I started seeing loads of people talking about how distorted it sounds. I even saw people saying it sounded more...
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The Equal LUFS Illusion
I'm seeing this question all the time recently: "I hit the LUFS target, but my mixes still sound smaller than the pros - WTF?!" Which seems like a perfectly reasonable question, right ? LUFS measure...
View ArticleDecoding the Loudness Paradox
The level you choose to master at influences every other aspect of the way your music sounds The final level of your master is virtually irrelevant, and music fans don’t care These two facts are both...
View ArticleDynameter 2 Released !
I'm excited to announce that we've released a major update to my Dynameter plugin – Version 2 allows you to get even deeper insight into the dynamics and density of your audio with: Powerful new...
View ArticleMastering Engineer Reacts to 8 Pro Mixes of the Same Song
Have you ever wished you could hear how 8 different pro producers would mix the same song; find out how they did it; compare the results and apply what you've learned to your own music ? Well, that's...
View ArticleSTOP looking at waveforms !!
Waveforms are everywhere - in your DAW, in online audio platforms, in books... everywhere. And the trouble is, you can't trust them ! At least, not in some fundamental and very important ways. In this...
View ArticleHigher LUFS - do they REALLY always sound louder ?
Everybody keeps telling me that higher LUFS masters always sound louder, even when they're loudness-matched - for example when people listen via YouTube or online streaming services. But I just don't...
View ArticleLive realtime audio metering - with plugins
People keep asking how I set up the live audio metering on my Mac during livestreams and videos, which allows me to assess the loudness, EQ balance, stereo image and more of any audio I'm playing, in...
View ArticlePeter Gabriel's i/o Mix Comparison - Bright or Dark Side ?
Blue Pill or Red Pill ? Is there really that big a difference ? So the new Peter Gabriel album 'i/o' is finally here - and everyone is talking about the fact that there are three alternative mixes of...
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The Beatles''Now and Then' is a marvel of audio restoration - but did it...
I made a deal with myself, in the years after my blog posts about the loudness of Metallica's "Death Magnetic" went viral. (They ended up being reported in The Guardian and Wired magazine, and with me...
View ArticleDSP Overshoot vs. Intersample peaks and True Peak limiting - the devilish...
Hands up - I could have done better ! If you saw either of my two videos about inter-sample peaks and True Peak limiters, there's a chance you might have ended up being confused. This was called out...
View ArticleWhich version do YOU prefer? (And what's the difference?)
Miley Cyrus has a huge hit with “Flowers” right now, and I recently shared two different versions of her song “Jaded” on social media, asking people which version they preferred, and why. If you saw...
View ArticleIan Shepherd AES Cambridge Talk 2022 - Mastering in the Streaming Era
I was recently invited to speak by the Audio Engineering Society in Cambridge.The talk was also streamed online and had several hundred people watching from all over the world, but not everyone was to...
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Streaming Loudness in 2022 is 95 Percent Normalized
As far as I can tell, 95% of the music you're hearing online is normalized, in 2022. But what does that mean, and how did I come to that conclusion ? And most importantly, why should you care ? What...
View ArticleLoudness Penalty Plugin - FAQ
The video above is a great, creative introduction by the popular "Snake Oil" YouTube channel, to my new plugin Loudness Penalty. It offers an excellent, entertaining overview of what the plugin does,...
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What's going on with loudness normalization ?!?
Yesterday I posted on the MeterPlugs blog about the fact that YouTube had switched to using a -14 LUFS reference level, and why I thought that was a good thing. But today, it looks as if they've...
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Amazon Music Loudness Normalization Arrives
The title says it all, really ! Bill Koch emailed me yesterday to let me know that Amazon Music have recently added Loudness Normalization to their mobile and desktop apps. I've only had time to do...
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