"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:13:41 +0100, "Fed Up Lurker"
wrote:


"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...


SNIP


http://www.kolumbus.fi/iain.churches...Comparison.png


The common practice of leveling has been applied, it is indeed
unpleasent and apparently is the "default" process.
Do a google using these terms:
"Fletcher-Munson curves"
"cd audio leveling"
I've never undertaken pro mastering but my understanding is that
somewhere in the contract or whatever, that it would state "leveling"
would be applied by default unless otherwise/specifically requested.
Have a look at whatever piece of paper you signed for this mastering,
I doubt you'd have legal redress...




Not sure what you are saying here. Fletcher Munson curves are a
representation of equal loudness vs frequency. That has nothing
whatever to do with this.


Yes it does!

And neither is this levelling. It is mega compression followed by
brickwall limiting plus what looks suspiciously like digital clipping.
The whole thing is just a disaster.

d


You're wrong again!

Eight minutes after I posted you leapt in without knowing the subject.
I gave you a clue, to try a search on: "cd audio leveling"
But you didn't.
If you see how the thread evolved it is discernable that others did
do such a subsequent search.
I've only just found your reply, so I've just did the search for you.
"cd audio leveling" produces thousands of results, so I'm just providing
the link to the first:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

It was probably the default option when Iain selected their services.
The contract of sorts probably stipulated such processing would be
undertaken by default. If the tickbox was ticked... no redress!
If Iain is 100% confident that this was not a default option brought
to his attention then he has grounds to reject, but he hasn't come
back to update, or has he?

On Fri, 5 Nov 2010 12:02:15 -0000, "Fed Up Lurker"
wrote:


"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:13:41 +0100, "Fed Up Lurker"
wrote:


"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...


SNIP


http://www.kolumbus.fi/iain.churches...Comparison.png


The common practice of leveling has been applied, it is indeed
unpleasent and apparently is the "default" process.
Do a google using these terms:
"Fletcher-Munson curves"
"cd audio leveling"
I've never undertaken pro mastering but my understanding is that
somewhere in the contract or whatever, that it would state "leveling"
would be applied by default unless otherwise/specifically requested.
Have a look at whatever piece of paper you signed for this mastering,
I doubt you'd have legal redress...




Not sure what you are saying here. Fletcher Munson curves are a
representation of equal loudness vs frequency. That has nothing
whatever to do with this.


Yes it does!

And neither is this levelling. It is mega compression followed by
brickwall limiting plus what looks suspiciously like digital clipping.
The whole thing is just a disaster.

d


You're wrong again!

Eight minutes after I posted you leapt in without knowing the subject.
I gave you a clue, to try a search on: "cd audio leveling"
But you didn't.
If you see how the thread evolved it is discernable that others did
do such a subsequent search.
I've only just found your reply, so I've just did the search for you.
"cd audio leveling" produces thousands of results, so I'm just providing
the link to the first:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

It was probably the default option when Iain selected their services.
The contract of sorts probably stipulated such processing would be
undertaken by default. If the tickbox was ticked... no redress!
If Iain is 100% confident that this was not a default option brought
to his attention then he has grounds to reject, but he hasn't come
back to update, or has he?


Ok, I'll play. I just googled "cd audio levelling" and got two precise
matches. One for the Wikipedia article you cite and another for an
Ubuntu forum. All the rest were single word matches - unless you count
the "shopping results for CD audio levelling" bit, of course.

I presume you skimmed the wiki article and found a passing,
peripheral mention of the Fletcher Munson curves - a nice technical
bit to drop into your post no doubt.

As for audio levelling itself - it is not maximizing volume. It is a
legitimate part of mastering a multi-track CD. It is the process of
making sure that all the tracks (that are supposed to) sound about the
same volume. What had happened to Iain's track was nothing whatever to
do with levelling.

As for knowing nothing about the subject, in my misspent youth I
worked at Pye studios in Marble Arch. I was taught there to master and
cut vinyl. Now vinyl actually needs to be mastered, unlike a CD which
as far as I am concerned should be burned exactly the way it arrived
from the mix.

d