Often, I’m sure this was at the insistence of the client, not the mastering engineer’s decision (as a professional mastering engineer we can advise, but the customer always has the final say). One of the reasons the loudness wars became such a problem was that many mastering engineers were applying far too heavy compression and limiting to softer material, killing the dynamics and making it sound crushed and lifeless – totally unnatural for the genre.Ĭue listener comments like “the mastering is too loud”. Mastering dance music will generally need a lot more heft than mastering jazz music or mastering ambient music for example. Of course, different genres of music differ in their requirements. You can always push louder – but there will always be a cutoff point where pushing louder is no longer an improvement. Volume without punch is just noise – just annoying. This sounds counter-intuitive, but is true. Most music will lose power and be made to sound weaker by pushing the intrinsic volume ever-higher. Often the worst atrocities being committed by the biggest bands (Metallica “Death Magnetic” is probably the most famous, with legendary mastering engineer Ted Jensen actually distancing himself from the end result). This all got really silly in the early-mid 2000’s, with many album casualties being pushed so much they were transformed into worse versions of their original mixes due to over-agressive limiters being pushed way too hard.Įven naturally heavier genres like hip-hop, rock and dance music suffered casualties in the loudness war. The other side prefers the more dynamic, bouncy, open, vibrant finish – but at the expense of aggressive volume. One camp likes the more compressed, slammed, thicker, heavier finish – but at a cost of dynamic expression. This has been a hotly debated topic since the mid-90’s. You have probably heard the term “the loudness war” – the unofficial battle between record labels asking mastering engineers to push the intrinsic volume of records to the maximum – trying to be the loudest track on every mixtape, and a louder CD than the previous. The best mastering has to sound great on all these devices – that’s one of the biggest challenges for a professional mastering engineer.Ī major part of this, and a long-running debate among record labels, producers and all the best mixing and mastering services is “ How loud should my master be?“. The playback medium matters too – if music is streamed from the internet, played from a CD, hard drive, vinyl or even old-skool cassette tapes which are now a “thing” again – all the formats have subtly different ways of handling the dynamic range, tone and volume of music. From beautiful full-range systems to terrible speakers built into a phone.
These days people consume music in more ways than ever before. (If you really need numbers now, skip to the “What’s the best LUFS for mastering?” section below.) Playback Methods Have Changed This is not a “wooly” answer – there is no single right dB or LUFS answer. These days it’s best to go for what works best for your album, not try and fit in to other people’s shoes. It is NOT trying to get the loudest master just for the sake of it (or to “beat” your mate’s track), sacrificing dynamic range and punch in the process (never confuse volume with punch). It is NOT wilfully hitting a streaming platform’s published targets without a second thought for what’s right for the genre (more on this later). I’ll tell you what is not the right approach: You were expecting a measureable number? I’ll get to that, but there’s more to what’s the best mastering volume than one easy answer. Your master should be finished to the volume it sounds best at to you, with consideration to what’s expected by the average listener for the genre. How loud should my album be in 2022? – Here’s The Short Answer:
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The end point is finding the ultimate recipe for the best mixing and mastering finish for your music, and how to win the loudness war in 2021 and beyond. I’m going to give my perspective on these questions and explain about LUFS, peak and true-peak (with as little jargon as possible). Having been a professional mastering engineer since 2006, I have a few opinions. After many years spent racing towards the loudest master, is the loudness war over? We can’t avoid mentioning the famous loudness wars in this article either, and the direction music mastering is heading. There are several different opinions on the question of “What is the best volume to finish my master?” (or for the more technically minded “What LUFS should I master to?”).
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