Another Intersample Peaks Discussion

[pipelineaudio]

There was an idea that the volume wars were over thanks to EBU R128, and we could have sensible ceilings and RMS values. But in reality, we still people mastering to insanely high levels and a 0.1dB peak.

Here's a pretty long discussion going on https://gearspace.com/board/mastering-forum/1401406-intersample-clipping-audible.html

But the video at the heart of it is from Ian Sheppard, who you might know from The Mastering Show podcast

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I don’t really see the problem of loud masters going anywhere. So much music is created to just be loud and undynamic by its nature, in the same way that some songs are meant to be very dynamic.

One other issue I encounter is when I’m mixing, if the reference mix I’m sent is really loud already, there’s no way I’m sending them a quieter mix back. Otherwise the first comments will be “it lacks energy” or something in that direction. A&R’s still love ridiculously loud mixes to play in their meetings and, annoyingly, if having your song louder than the competition gives you an edge then people will strive for that.

The stuff regarding inter sample peaks is less debatable really - there’s plenty of true peak limiters out there, and Apple provides tools to check for clipping once the file has been converted to lost formats. The main area of bullshit for me is why are people still catering for lossy audio in 2023? There are absolutely certain situations where it’s useful, but IMO an mp3 shouldn’t compromise artistic/creative decisions made to the full bandwidth versions of the song.

Definitely TONS of examples on streaming sites with inter sample peaks, and unfortunately I don’t think most people notice or care.