k-20, k-14, k-12 levels

[patricdeimon]

Greetings. I use the output meters in Masterworks limiter for my level reference most of the time and try to keep things between -14 and -12. What are the eqivalent levels for k-20, k-14, k-12? These level references are new to me.

In my days of radio production with DP I would send out spots at -18 to keep from tripping up the broadcast compressors. I suspect all that has or is changing in the last 8 years or so. Any light on the new levels language would be helpful...Thanks

[aculver]

There is a LOT going on in this area these days.

A little background: The "K" in "K-12, K-14 and K-20" is for Bob Katz, the great mastering engineer (digido.com). His book "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science" is a must read. Really.

Bob Katz is the Nelson Mandela of the Loudness Wars. The K-system metering was his personal attempt to keep digital recording levels reasonable, and it has been widely accepted and implemented in metering and mastering plugins, and DAWs (not in DP however).

Katz is also one of the main forces behind MFIT, and Apple has been listening to his tirades about loudness as well, to the point that iTunes radio now only broadcasts music that has been run through Sound Check. Which means it must have an average level of something in the area of -15db (Apple does not say what they are doing, but Katz and others have measured the results and confirm that this approximately is what Sound Check is doing).

Sound Check is also an option in iTunes for Library playback, and everyone should check it on.

Many other radio orgs (like the European Broadcast Union) are also starting the use code that reduces average level to readings in the region of -15db. This is the future, and it is coming fast.

Google LUFS, the Loudness Wars, and read this link:

http://www.digido.com/forum/announcement/id-6.html

Why does this matter to DP users? Because mixing has just changed radically. Those highly compressed tracks with only a few db of dynamic range right up near 0db are being cranked down up to 15db! They will sound weak and pathetic.

Meanwhile, tracks with wide dynamic range that average about -15db will not be turned down at all! They will sound as rich and interesting on the radio as they do in your studio.

So while Miley Cyrus' tracks might be lucky to peak at -12db, yours could peak at -1db (provided there is complementary material down around -30db). Instead of your stuff sounding feeble next to hers, it will be the other way around.

Andrew

[David Polich]

Every track in the near future will have an average level of -15db? I
can only say, I sincerely wish that to come true. But I doubt it will.

You're only talking about i-Tunes radio. Unless there is a law that says
everyone's master has to average at -15db, there won't be a universal
compliance with that standard. People are still going to master stuff
with peaks of -0.1 db and average levels at -10 db (or even -8 db, I've
seen tracks like that).

Frankly, and personally, I'm sick to death of trying to make masters
so insanely loud. But it isn't me who wants stuff as loud as a jet engine -
it's clients. So until clients start demanding that their songs aren't as loud as Metallica's Death Magnetic album, there will just be more of the same brickwall, solid square-wave of a waveform insanity that has become the norm.

Actually, it's never been a question of "loud" masters. It's a question of
"louder compared to __". Like the overuse of digital reverb, the sampled
orchestra hit, the D50 "fantasia" synth sound, and "T-pain" autotuned vocals, we have loud masters simply because we "can" have them. Maybe
brickwall limiters should never have been invented.

Maybe I can stop feeling inferior because my masters usually end up at
-0.5 peaks with averages around -12 db. I would really love to be free of
that forever. But I'm not counting on it.

Ok, end of that rant. Since this is the DP usage section of the forum, I
should add that to check "k-levels", you need a metering plug-in that includes the K-system. iK Multimedia's T-rackS3 "shell" includes K-system
metering. PSP's Xenon mastering limiter also includes it.

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/trdeluxe/

http://www.pspaudioware.com/plugins/dyn ... psp_xenon/