How to Calibrate Loudness?

[watchnerd]

I hear you on the variability of mix hotness. Set it - 39 dbFS and live with a few days. You can always adjust that up or down a few db till it suits you best.

I don't want music playback to end up like movies where there have to be a couple dozen proprietary formats on the AVR to watch anything with sound. Some basic level stabilization would pay some dividends however.

I thought the Bob Katz article that was linked was insightful, especially the comment on loudness wars....and that was from 2000!

 

[Blumlein 88]

I thought the Bob Katz article that was linked was insightful, especially the comment on loudness wars....and that was from 2000!

Yes, a voice in the wilderness of the loudness wars. The loudness wars can't get much worse. Otherwise you'll have all clipping all the time.

 

[mitchco]

Bob's article is as good as it gets. I wrote a similar viewpoint: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/dynamic-range-no-quiet-no-loud-r643/

Wrt loudness curves and calibration, this link over at HA I seemed to recall had some MatLab code and an Excel sheet had some relative values: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php/topic,83587.0.html

 

[Theo]

This a paper about how the industry addresses the loudness war question... normalizing the recording to an average loudness rather than instant peaks...
https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/techreview/trev_2010-Q3_loudness_Camerer.pdf

 

[Cosmik]

This a paper about how the industry addresses the loudness war question... normalizing the recording to an average loudness rather than instant peaks...
https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/techreview/trev_2010-Q3_loudness_Camerer.pdf

A different "loudness", I think. (Like "compression" and "compression").

In this case, "loudness" refers to variable EQ depending on playback level in order to maintain perceived equal "loudness" at all frequencies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

In the 1970s many amplifiers had a "Loudness" button that applied a fixed boost to bass and treble. Most non-audiophiles left it on all the time...

 

[danadam]

IIRC, dr @Floyd Toole in his book says that loudness mode should modify only bass and leave treble alone.