Thread by @AzevedoAudio

So, @GoodWillsmith posted a comment about the mastering on PJ Harvey's "Rid Of Me" which led to some interesting discussion and I did some digging. Let's see what I found!

@GoodWillsmith First off, as can been seen in the waveform in the first post, the track has a HUGE dynamic range. The integrated loudness of the chorus is 22 LUFS higher than the verse!

@GoodWillsmith This leads to the playback issue @GoodWillsmith raised: if you set your playback volume based on the chorus, the verse disappears. If you set the playback volume based on the verse, the chorus is OMG LOUD.

But what about the whole song? Overall, the original 1993 master has an integrated loudness of -19.1 LUFS. That's only 5 dB below modern streaming normalization, -14 LUFS.

But wait! In the Olden Days of 1993, digital brickwall limiters were uncommon. So, not unusually, the peak level of the master doesn't go all the way up to 0 dBFS. The peak level is a very relaxed -2.3 dBFS. If we simply normalize it, we get a loudness of -17 dBFS, almost modern!

And if we REALLY dig in, we see that the peak level is being controlled by just a few snare hits in the chorus. If we did a very, very gentle pass of brickwall limiting, we could get this up to -14 dBfs without touching 99.9% of the samples in the song.

It's worth considering that this was released in 1993 and never remastered, how unusual was it when it came out? Here is "Rid Of Me" next to the Smashing Pumpkin's "Today" (and nobody ever accused Billy Corgan of being level-shy).

I didn't have an original 1993 master of "Today" handy, and the only place I could find it online was YouTube. (Everywhere else has the 2011 remaster.) That means this has been normalized for playback, hence it being having an integrated loudness of exactly -14 LUFS.

There is one snare hit that goes up to -0.2 dBFS, and was probably limited by the normalization algorithm. The actual master was probably a few dB lower, which would land it ~3 dB louder than Rid Of Me. Noticeable, but not night-and-day.

Today has the quiet verse / loud chorus thing going that was very popular in 1993. But here, instead of the extreme 22 LUFS contrast of Rid Of Me, we have a more listenable difference of only 3 LUFS.

Even with the much, much more compressed range of Today, early 90s mastering still left some wonderful microdynamics that are hard to get away with in modern productions.

Here is the middle verse-chorus-verse from Today. See how the chorus initially jumps up from the chorus and then it keeps getting progressively louder until the big drop in level at the next chorus? That feels SO GOOD to listen to, and it is hard to let it happen now.

Of course, you could limit this and it average level would still build, but the result of the sound getting denser as it builds feels pretty different that what we have here, with the sound getting bigger as it builds.

So. What have I taken away from my trip back to 1993? First, the overall level of Rid Of Me isn't super out of whack for when it came out. However, the dynamic range is an enormous 22 LUFS, which is more like symphonic music than rock.

Second, there could be a very gentle remaster done that would preserve the enormous dynamics while getting it up to typical 2023 streaming levels. If anyone needs that done, my rates are quite reasonable. ;)

Finally, how should we listen to this recording? I think the smallness of the verses is absolutely intentional. It should be living down near the edge of audibility. I also think the chorus deserves to be EXTRA BIG.

Playing it back ~6 dB louder than I usually listen to rock or pop seems to be the sweet spot: the verses are quiet but the lyrics are intelligible, the jump to the chorus is shocking but not painful.

I'm a big fan of challenging music, and I'm all for going along with artists who want to push in directions other than louder/harsher. I've certainly put out my own albums with dynamic and frequency content I'd never do for a client without them requesting it.

Seriously, putting this out was kinda silly. BUT. It was exactly the sound I wanted and I trusted my audience to be willing to trust me enough to come along for the ride.

retributionbody.bandcamp.com/album/self-des…

I think that is what PJ Harvey did with Rid Of Me. She made an album that would be impossible to play on commercial radio because she wanted to express something outside of what that format dictated was acceptable.

If the cost of admission is turning your headphones or speakers up 6 dB louder than you usually listen, I don't think that is too much to ask of a listener. In a world where so much art has been flattened to content, I think it is worth pushing back on making things easy.

This was really fun to dig into on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Thanks again to @GoodWillsmith for starting the conversation! I hope folks enjoy the thread as much as I did writing it.

@naxuu In the former case, there would be no difference. In the latter, which is the case in this version of Today, you'll get a little bit of limiting on the loudest drum hits. I'd be hard pressed to catch it if I didn't have the original to compare to since it is so few hits.

@naxuu Streaming the recent hi-def masters of the early Black Sabbath records at full resolution was a might fine listen.