How do you optimise your music for online streaming, when there are so many different services and standards out there ?
Specifically:
- What’s the best file format to submit ?
- What about the specifications ?
- Can you compensate for the sound of the encoder ?
- How do you know how loud to make your music ?
- Should you make separate masters for every service ?
- What about Mastered for iTunes ?
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Ian Shepherd’s Dynameter, by MeterPlugs
Links
Why mp3 sucks, and how to hear it
Sample rate conversion comparisons
Online streaming loudness infographic
Mastered for iTunes - the saviour of great sound ?
Online streaming loudness petition
For Music to sound acceptable on Radio what's needed is for the desk to work like a Band Splitting compressor multiple outputs with different types of processing. In the best case no processing on the Music, I have run test on to FM Modulators and this is the best possible way to present music on FM. It's almost impossible in all countries to do this because there is no work in tests being done any more, they all think that Radio has done all the testing necessary. Radio is governed by people who are Communication Technicians not Audio People, for a Radio Station to sound good it must Set-Up by an Audio Person! Radio has been very good at taking other peoples inventions and making them work for Radio. Mr Marconi took the invention of the telegraph and made it work for Wireless. It's the MindSet that stops radio sounding better with music!
Hey Ian and Jon. Another great show in the books guys! I am still chuckling about your perception of the mp3 Ian. I can remember when I had to use a streaming service for our Pastors Sermons, to be available for Church Members who were out of town or sick and missed the service. Like Jon said, when mp3s hit the scene and you could have 200 songs in a player that would fit on your key chain, man it was hot lick. Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane and I will be waiting for the next one. Stay safe and keep up the great work.
Hi Ian, love the show, have been listening with interest to all the shows. Have you had any exposure to the Harrison Mixbus 32C DAW or do you know of anyone who has used it for mastering? I've tried out it's little brother and it seems to be adding something to the basic things I've been doing. I intend to continue using Logic but use Mixbus for my final mixes - is anyone using it for final mastering though?
All the best and keep going with this podcast - it's really informative and I've learned a ton of things already!
I am sticking to the middle of the road, namely with AAC from iTunes store. I have purchased many FLAC, AIFF, ALAC and even WAV recordings and felt I was a little ripped off. I used the TIDAL store, BandCamp, 7digital, Beatport, CD Baby, Juno Download and Klicktrack. I've been almost everywhere. Honestly, the only time I was ever sure I got the real deal was if I bought good old CDs.
Significantly often I couldn't tell if the website I was buying the song from actually had the true originals. On Beatport I would choose AIFF and then see it was transcoding. What was it transcoding from? I don't know. Maybe it was WAV, maybe 320kbps mp3. Their website was buggy too, at the very least...
Other times, I'd experience a really awesome recording even though it was compressed, thinking to myself "that sounds awesome"; thus, deducing that much of this stuff depends on how good the artist made it in the first place...
I've bought songs lossless that turned out to be a completely different version of what I was after. Shinedown - I'll Follow You - for example, as a live track sounds horrible. The guy almost gargles the contents of his trachea out. The studio recording is sweet. Another example is Pilgrimage by Kitaro, awesome track, but lossless didn't melt my ears.
Also, after some time I noticed the path was getting narrower and it's become harder and harder to find the lossless songs I really like, unless I resorted to buying CDs from around the world. I'd open iTunes, and there they were available. So I started writing them down in notes for a later purchase. The list would grow over time and I would not find them anywhere. Miraculously, if I did find some, a single song would cost me nearly $40, because I had to buy the whole CD (Kharak System on a Homeworld OST for example). I can't justify that anymore, even though I've done it a few times. The availability of the material, some of which I really love, far surpasses that of lossless.
Getting into such tight spaces has a psychological effect on a person too, because one builds mental pressure when they're chasing perfection that is ever more illusory the closer it gets, forgetting the tune was supposed to be enjoyed. Kind of like the law of diminishing returns.
So in conclusion, I just got tired of chasing lossless...
If you can do it, go for it...