Loudness on your songs

[Paulo]

There's always a knob on your Hi-fi system to be turned down or up, if it's to loud or to low...

Got no clue, just look at the the stress in the waves maximizer plugin and at the same time listen if it there's any stress in my ears... usually the bass and kick gets affected, to my ears, if I'm pushing too much the limiter.

[Paulo]

One other thing that makes me scratch my head, these days, is the debate about listening in mono... Who on earth listens in mono these days? I'm not going to compromise a stereo mix because it sounds bad in mono, I don't listen to mono stuff for ages.

[snowdoguk]

Actually, listening to music with a high dynamic range is more exhausting than listening to music with a low dynamic range... the changes are quite hard for the brain and it makes you more tired than listening to an over compressed modern day song... music fatigue ....

[CosmicDolphin]

One other thing that makes me scratch my head, these days, is the debate about listening in mono... Who on earth listens in mono these days? I'm not going to compromise a stereo mix because it sounds bad in mono, I don't listen to mono stuff for ages.

You probably listen to more mono than you think

Everytime you go out somewhere that plays 'piped' music like in a department store or shopping centre , plenty of mono TV's still out there, radios in cars, phones , ipods etc will switch to mono if it has a less than ideal signal.  My little Sony DAB Radio in my kitchen is mono anyway.

Many folk won't place stereo speakers properly in a domestic situation - you'll probably find one behind the sofa and another across the room mounted on a wall 

Nobody sits in the sweet spot either    So all that careful panning probably won't make as much sense outside of the ideal listening position.

The reason to mono check is also to eliminate mistakes. The mono balance will be different for sure but if you've panned an important part opposite sides and the phase relationship means it cancels itself out then you'll get a huge level drop or maybe not even hear it at all. Imagine it comes on the radio and the wide panned rhythm guitars are not there ?

CD

[stoman]

Mark is right. You listen to mono all the time. A mix that is not mono-compatible will break in most every-day scenarios.

Actually, listening to music with a high dynamic range is more exhausting than listening to music with a low dynamic range... the changes are quite hard for the brain and it makes you more tired than listening to an over compressed modern day song... music fatigue ....

That would only be possible if all of the following was true:

  a) The dynamic differences are extreme.
  b) The changes are in a fast sequence.
  c) The sounds are completely unrelated.

So we are talking about a very specific kind of noise here.

None of the above is ever true in music though, where all sounds are always clearly related and dynamic changes build slowly. In music low dynamic range is always exhausting to the ear. You can listen to an old Pink Floyd recording the whole day long, while an over-compressed Amy McDonalds song tires your ears out within seconds.

Regards,
  Steffen
 

[Paulo]

Yeh, maybe you're right, I did not think of it that way... I listen to music at home most of the times and it's stereo, lol.

[Gerk]

One other thing that makes me scratch my head, these days, is the debate about listening in mono... Who on earth listens in mono these days? I'm not going to compromise a stereo mix because it sounds bad in mono, I don't listen to mono stuff for ages.

You probably listen to more mono than you think

Everytime you go out somewhere that plays 'piped' music like in a department store or shopping centre , plenty of mono TV's still out there, radios in cars, phones , ipods etc will switch to mono if it has a less than ideal signal.  My little Sony DAB Radio in my kitchen is mono anyway.

Many folk won't place stereo speakers properly in a domestic situation - you'll probably find one behind the sofa and another across the room mounted on a wall 

Nobody sits in the sweet spot either    So all that careful panning probably won't make as much sense outside of the ideal listening position.

The reason to mono check is also to eliminate mistakes. The mono balance will be different for sure but if you've panned an important part opposite sides and the phase relationship means it cancels itself out then you'll get a huge level drop or maybe not even hear it at all. Imagine it comes on the radio and the wide panned rhythm guitars are not there ?

CD

I have to third all of this too!

[Argle]

Headphones and mono probably account for the way 95% of people will listen to your stuff.  I should probably start checking my stuff in those.  lol

[CosmicDolphin]

Headphones and mono probably account for the way 95% of people will listen to your stuff.  I should probably start checking my stuff in those.  lol

True, and you can hear things on headphones that you don't always hear on the speakers..especially little clicks, pops, or mic handing noise etc.
CD