I'm mixing Euro-pop and Detroit Gospel today.

[Bob Womack]

I don't suppose there could be much more of a contrast, could there?

The gospel style thang has a strong female lead, a choir, and an ensemble with horns, organ, guitars, bass, etc., and drum kit. A few weeks I overdubbed guitar parts including leads onto this one. Today I'm just giving it the finishing touches.

The Euro-pop arrangement has stacks and stacks of keyboard pads, a large, mostly synthesized drum kit, eleven tracks of guitars(!), and tons of special effects that I'm flying in and out. It's a really catchy tune. The lead vocalista is a really strong female singer and she has BGVs and call-and-response from a male vocalista. The biggest challenge with this one is the density of the arrangement. I have to fight the sense of overwhelming clabber, of too much midrange info clouding up the mix and crowding the vocals.

As usual I'm spitting out two final mixes: a regular album mix, ready for mastering, and a fully mastered broadcast/video mix that adheres to the CALM act strictures and averages just shy of -24 LUFS integrated loudness. Ah, the modern world!

Bob

[muscmp]

sounds interesting bob!

play music!

[Andy Howell]

As always Bob I love reading your accounts of mixing and recording. I have no idea what you are talking about most of the time. CALM? LUFS?

BTW, have started using your stereo acoustic recording set up and on my guitar - very rich and deep bass - it the best arrangement I have found yet!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Andy Howell

As always Bob I love reading your accounts of mixing and recording. I have no idea what you are talking about most of the time. CALM? LUFS?

You know how for years the commercials have been louder than the programs on TV? That is jokingly called the "refrigerator reach." Advertising agencies pushed to have their commercials compressed to the point where there was virtually NO dynamic range so that each one is as loud as possible in order to draw attention, even as the audience runs to the fridge for a cold one. Compressed audio can be broadcast louder than uncompressed audio. However, a feature-length TV program that was as compressed as far as the commercials would be so loud it would "shove you through the back wall" and fatigue your ears way before it was over. TV program creators have to make less-compressed audio or run off their audience. As a result, there was always a stark contrast between the program and the commercials. The FCC tried to get the industry to regulate itself but there was no forward motion so they consulted with Dolby labs to create a method to measure the program density and equipment to measure it. The standard measure is now LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) and the standard density level is -24db below full scale. Congress passed the CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) Act of 2010 that made the standard official and required that commercials conform by the end of 2012. In order to make all program relatively equal, broadcasters are making all of their program conform to the standard. My network and my other clients aren't exceptions so I export a video mix that conforms to CALM specs and a CD mix.

BTW, have started using your stereo acoustic recording set up and on my guitar - very rich and deep bass - it the best arrangement I have found yet!

Marvelous! Thanks to George Massenburg who inspired me.

Bob

[Andy Howell]

That standard density is very interesting Bob. Would you advise something similar for simple audio recording?

[Bob Womack]

The LUFS measurement and calibration is basically only for broadcast. Other than broadcast, you can learn a bit about modern mastering and the "loudness wars" by running clips through an LUFS meter. An interesting fact is that an over-compressed product will actually sound quieter than a less compressed product on LUFS-calibrated stations.

Bob