Dynamics. I talk about them ALL the time. “This song has great dynamics”... “make sure you keep plenty of dynamics”... “your music NEEDS balanced dynamics”… but what actually ARE they ?
Just like everything else we talk about on this show, dynamics are more complicated than they might seem at first glance. For example, there are at least two different types ! In this show we unpick the topic and try to shed some life on the truth about dynamics, including:
- Why the loudness war hasn’t reduced loudness range
- Why “DR” measurements don’t measure dynamic range
- Why “crest factor” is a better term, and how it relates to the two types of dynamics
- The natural dynamics of different sounds, and
- When you don’t want to hear them
- What Ian really thinks of the Prodigy, Skrillex and the Chemical Brothers - and their dynamics
- How to measure dynamics
Links
TMS #21 - Why digital “resolution” doesn’t exist – because dither
TMS #31 – What IS Loudness ?
How to use the TT Meter
Why the Loudness War HASN’T reduced loudness range
Ian Shepherd's Dynameter Plugin by Meterplugs
Why your EDM will sound better with more dynamics – and 6 places to find them
Compression and limiting – the Punchbag Analogy
Hey guys, I wasn't sure where to post this - what would you think about doing an episode on ear fatigue? Or whatever you call it when your ears get so used to the same frequencies that mixing starts to get vague and ambiguous. Along those lines, I'm also wondering if there's a specific strategy for staying productive during all day mixing/mastering sessions, say 8 hours or more. I think it might be a useful episode topic. Love the show, never miss an episode, truly a goldmine of production info.
Regarding the "screaming from the top of their lungs" thing - I found out that actually screaming as loud as one can isn't often used in music, because of two reasons.
One - it's extremely fatiguing to the vocal organs, and can cause permanent damage if used for prolonged time, not to say that it hurts.
Two - it doesn't actually sound that pleasant. People scream differently when they are in fear for their lives as they do when they just "fake it". Of course that's a part of peoples' musical taste - I personally don't find death growls to be enjoable to listen to. But that's a nifty vocal technique, that doens't shatter your vocal cords - it just distorts the signal in a clever way.
I've found that vocalists usually actually scream way quieter than you might think, but they incorporarte a every clever mechanical distortion into they voice emission, that makes it sound loud, without being loud. For example on videos from live shows of Mike Patton - you can often see him doing his screams right into the mic grill (sometimes even swallowing the mic) - the screams are not as loud, they are very cleverly distorted and might actualy be quieter than his usual well-projected clean voice - that's why he's compensating with moving closer to the mic, and also to make the scream "be louder" on the PA, without it being louder in the source.
And from my own experience as a vocalist - screaming loud can only get you so far, screaming quiet is a way of producing a voice that sounds powerful, without breaking your instrument.
I've also found out that in mixing (particularly with Mike Patton again) scream vocals are additionally distorted to make them sound harsher and more violent. So again - faking it.
The thing about drums being hit not hard enough to have the harmonics and room reverb needed to make them sound loud is a bit different - with drums there is not much else one can do to make them sound louder, but to hit them harder. But from my experience with close miking - the loud drums with no reverb, no room mic - the sound is out of context of the space and we have no way of saying if it's loud or not.
That's why a room mic is so important with drum recordings in my opinion.
Getting a dry, clean signal will actually make it sound quiet, no matter how hard you hit the drumskins. I sang in a rock band that had a drummer who was playing very loud, and it was a problem because it was hard to get the rest of the band audible in small venues, without deafening everyone. And when we recorded him in a studio that had acoustic treatment - it all sounded very thin. His energy was not properly captured, because it was taken out of context.
When we recorded the drums later in a home studio, with minimal acoustic treatment - they sounded much bigger, becasue of the room response. We had less mics, not as good equipment and it sounded way better to us still.
This is the same as with the explosion sounds you talked about, Ian - the reverb of the forest and the mountains makes it sound big, not the explosion's "pop" itself.
I once used a recorded firework explosion (that had a lot of environment reverbation) as an IR reverb for my voice - and it sounded like I'm on a huge stage, singing through a giant PA system.
Because the firework explosion excited a forest and the town around the place when it went off and their response was captured - and my brain recognizes this and says "that's a huge sound".
Hey, sorry - I accidentally put this comment under the wrong episode.
I've also commented under episode #31, "What IS loudness" - my long comment belongs there, please delete the comment I wrote under this episode.
Sorry for the mess.
Thank you for your great content, Ian!