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[Viitalahde]

I just realized it's actually pretty rare in here to see a customer who wants his project as loud as possible.

The most common advice I hear is to just make it sound good, and I do have the occasional "it's great but could it be a little louder?" type of customers. Still, I don't feel the need to complain I'm ruining music every day by smashing it, because I don't do it daily. Either I'm blessed with my customer base or the loudness thing came and went already.

How many red lights and bending needles are you people seeing daily?

[lowland]

Viitalahde wrote on Tue, 09 March 2010 14:13

The most common advice I hear is to just make it sound good, and I do have the occasional "it's great but could it be a little louder?" type of customers.

That's what I get too.  It's quite unusual for me to have customers who want things super-loud by default - maybe one or two a year. Suffice to say, they get it in the first instance, although it's not unheard of for them to request the level be pulled back a bit after v1. I'll explain the whys and wherefores of loud CDs if I think it appropriate, but try not to preach and let the client decide based on (hopefully) solid advice.

[jdg]

not many.  hit or miss it seems.

had one REALLY LOUD ONE a few months ago.
sounds great, but still, a bit louder then i would want.

had another last week told me to redo it, but quieter.
when he attended, he wanted it LOUD. but after living with it for a few weeks, decided he wanted it lower.

[Sonovo]

Mostly clients seem most intersted in making things sound "good". On occasion that means "terribly loud", but most often not, as long as it's not dramatically lower than everything else. A lot of what we deliver ends up with 12dB of crest factor, which is nice. A mastering engineer I visited in NY and played some stuff for commented how nice it must be not having to crush the s**t out of everything. I agree, it is nice

Those clients who are more into hi-fi, or are aware of the loudness wars (most are not) have actually been requesting things lower and more dynamic (in the true meaning of the word), usually these are younger artists/producers who are going against the loudness trend. Whether it's because they want to be trendy or really do hear and understand the difference isn't clear, but it's nice all the same.

Cheers,
Thor

[odeon-mastering]

Luckily there are not too many Clients that want a super Loud master in my area.
I am quite blessed that I mainly deal with mixing engineers, so I guess they are aware, that their mix will suffer.

Usually they are happy if a rock n roll or pop mix averages around -10 db (which is still loud, but enough to retain the feel of dynamics)
The metal bands are even more aware of the loudness war and they actually ask for dynamic masters. i think a couple of well respected mixing engineers here in Thessaloniki did a great job informing them, about the downsides of extreme loudness.

Funny thing happened last October, when I finished a master (acoustic instruments, nice melodic music) and was evaluating it with the client (mixing engineer)...
He said nice man, great imaging ,tight bass, blablabla...now go back, make it a couple of dB's quieter and burn the master CD.(The "test" master was averaging at -13db and the final at -15)

[MoreSpaceEcho]

did a christian rock record last week, they wanted it loud and they got it. did a classical guitar record yesterday and boy was that a breath of fresh air. a tiny bit of eq, 2db of limiting and done.

most of my clients aren't asking for really loud masters. i cut 'em a db or two hotter than i would in a perfect world and usually they're cool with that. i always send the good sounding master first and see if i can get away with it. most times i do, but occasionally i get the dreaded 'sounds great, can you make it louder' emails like everyone else.

even my loud stuff is a couple db lower than the current *cough* state of the art...

[dietrich]

I master a lot of dance music which many clients need mastered for release on sites like Beatport. A few of them want it LOUD. I send them files at a point I already think its too loud and too crunched. two of them always want more.
They are the customer...

I also seem to be getting a few clients that send 'reference tracks' of a similar genre track already mastered.

For album masters this is never the problem

[Waltz Mastering]

It varies, but I try to keep it pretty conservative  most of the time.

When in doubt, I'll give two version and let the client decide.

Did a Rockabilly record last week with no bwl.

Request for Uber loud seems to be diminishing.

Also, in addition to the Myteks, I have a uber crappy da set up to spot check stuff on so I can get a better idea what the end user is going to be hearing.

Also, a slight rant about the loudness stuff brought on by a certain GS thread and a letter to the editor in the new Mix mag (Kravitz on the cover)makes you believe that everyone who mixes is born to master.  Getting stuff loud is not the hard part.  It's getting it good.  I'm relatively new to the full time ME thing (5 years) compared to some/many of the guys here, but I'm surprised at all the crap that seems to being flung at ME's these days .. sort of gets to me a bit.

[Table Of Tone]

Got a record coming in tomorrow, where the request is "I just want it to sound good! I'm not wanting it super loud"

Gotta admit, I'm looking forward to that one!

[urm eric]

The Elbow album seems to have done some good here - whether you think the cover blurb is accurate or not. It seems to have set the norm in the sense that a number of people have been happy recently for it to be a reference level.

Cheers,

Eric