How does the LUFS target + dbTP export algorithm in Ardour affect the dynamic range intentionally introduced into a mix?
I’m an amateur working on a cover of Jim Croce’s “Operator”; Yamaha electric piano, main/harmony/background vocals, that’s it. I use the YouTube/Deezer export preset as a kind of mastering step on my mix, so I can get an idea of how interim versions sound on various systems (my computer, headphones, in the car, and so on). For me the results are quite satisfactory but I kind of wonder if the export algorithm is affecting the loudness of the intro as compared to the rest of the song. I’m attenuating the intro to get a “subtly restrained” sound for the intro like in the original recording, but I feel like the export algorithm is controlling the overall average volume of the track and hence reducing the difference between the intro volume and the rest of the song.
Does that seem right? If so, would it be best to re-import the exported mix and adjust the gain on the intro to get the effect I want?
I haven’t noticed that quiet song passages are made louder during rendering. An analysis with the loudness assistant, which I use constantly, could clarify this.
My understanding is that the export adjusts levels uniformly such that no section is boosted more than another. (The limiter is going to affect louder parts more than quieter, though.)
I’ll be interested to know if my understanding on this is incorrect.
@mkindred thanks for the comment. I also use the loudness assistant but have not done any detailed analysis/comparisons of this track with different export settings. I’ll take a look at your suggestion that the limiter might be at fault … although there’s no option to disable the limiter in the “Normalize Loudness” GUI on export. The options seem to be “Limit to” and “constrain to”; I’ll have a look at the docs to try to understand the difference.
The intro to this track is 21 seconds out of an overall length of 250 seconds. So something like 8.5% of the total time. If there is some kind of averaging going on, it seems like a contiguous 8.5% chunk of the audio would be significant enough to be noticeably affected by the averaging - in this case making the intentionally soft 8.5% a bit louder in comparison with the remaining 91.5% of the track.
I’m listening the the rendered .wav. In two different headphones the (instrumental) intro “feels” louder than I want it, as compared to the body of the song. It sounds right when I listen to the actual mix in Ardour.
There’s certainly a chance it’s just me thinking I’m hearing something different between the raw mix in Ardour and the exported mix. I’m planning to do a more quantitative analysis using the loudness assistant/export analysis tools when I have some time.
There’s no dynamic processing, no compression / limitation applied when exporting in Ardour, only a gain adjustment (see docs). The only thing that could count as limiting is peak clipping above 0dB.
It sounds right when I listen to the actual mix in Ardour.
If you want to keep control over your dynamics you might want to apply the limiting yourself so that it sounds “right” (and avoid loudness normalization during export), and tweak it until you get the loudness measurements you’re after.
