Will streaming return dynamic range to recordings?

[RichB]

There was recent article by Steven Stone titled "How Streaming Killed The Loudness War":

https://audiophilereview.com/audiophile-news/how-streaming-killed-the-loudness-war.html

It is interesting and seems plausible with automated volume leveling normalization.

Here the referenced video "The Future of Mastering: Loudness in the Age of Music Streaming" that includes an excellent presentation by mastering engineer Alan Silverman.

Here is a chart from the presentation:

This is a contributor to the vinyl resurgence.
It's ironic an hilarious that the solution is to return reduce compression to make tracks sound louder after normalization using VU meters.

- Rich

 

[Soundstage]

Tracks are compressed because people listen to music in their car, on the go, or in noisy environments. Is that trend gone? Not quiet.
Stop the false hope...

 

[RichB]

Tracks are compressed because people listen to music in their car, on the go, or in noisy environments. Is that trend gone? Not quiet.
Stop the false hope...

A new movement starts here "stop false hope", that's just the ticket during a pandemic

I applaud this discussion by mastering engineers who produce music:

In this presentation, GRAMMY-nominated mastering engineer Alan Silverman shows how music streaming services have turned the world of mastering for loudness upside down. Explore how the tools and techniques that mix and mastering engineers of the 21st century are changing quickly in response to the automatic volume normalization happening on platforms like Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Google Play, Pandora and more. Find out more about Alan Silverman and his studio at http://www.aerialsound.com This presentation is excerpted from "The Future of Music Production" panel from MixCon 2019, sponsored by iZotope. Check them out at https://izotope.com

Listening to streaming services in their car is quite popular.

- Rich

 

[Soniclife]

Some sort of compression built into playback devices like cars has always been needed, I've never understood why it hasn't been done, it would be a valuable feature that the manufacturers could offer product differentiation, whilst not costing much to develop and build.

 

[RichB]

Some sort of compression built into playback devices like cars has always been needed, I've never understood why it hasn't been done, it would be a valuable feature that the manufacturers could offer product differentiation, whilst not costing much to develop and build.

Better yet smart compression based on environment. The phone could apply compression based on ambient noise or when the output device is car audio system. Compression could be set on the phone also based on metadata.

There is no reason to destroy the source to achieve a listening environment goal.

- Rich

 

[Soniclife]

Better yet smart compression based on environment. The phone could apply compression based on ambient noise or when the output device is car audio system. Compression could be set on the phone also based on metadata.

Yep. Most/all factory fitted car units these days have a speed sensitive volume gain as you speed up, an ambient mic and some intelligence in the DSP could much improve that crude approach, some road surfaces are really loud compared to others.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Yep. Most/all factory fitted car units these days have a speed sensitive volume gain as you speed up, an ambient mic and some intelligence in the DSP could much improve that crude approach, some road surfaces are really loud compared to others.

I had a car with the ambient mic and it triggered adjustments for noise levels but lacked intelligence. Played with it occasionally but generally left it defeated.