Anyone used LEVELS plug in?

[Armistice]

https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/levels

I came across this as I was aware I didn't really know that much about what I was trying to do - and bouldersoundguy over at HR mentioned "intersample peaking" on my last tune - a concept I was aware of but didn't really understand.

So I started re-mastering my CD masters with the concept of LUFS in mind courtesy of this and another loudness meter VST by someone called YouLean - https://youlean.co/youlean-loudness-meter/ - and I knocked out the first two songs without too much drama - the tools were useful.

But I got stuck and am still stuck, on the third one - which for the life of me I can't get to reasonable volume and not have peaking. Must have spent 4 hours on the damn thing yesterday. I'd flatten one transient peak out and the net result of that would be that the next highest one would then peak out. Very frustrating - especially as i can't actually hear the problem and it seems completely independent of the actual volume.

Think I perhaps need to try a different limiter. I'm using Stillwell's Event Horizon in limit mode and always have, but this particular song is just proving way too difficult - and for the life of me I can't tell what's different between this song and other songs - apart from this one having been recorded a little more quietly than the others.

Anyway that plug above is on a 14 day trial so I'd better get my head down on it. I'd forgotten I had to master at both 16 bit CD volume and 24 bit streaming / MP3 volume, and that the two aren't remotely the same thing. Lots of interesting stuff out there on how the streaming services treat "loud" mixes too... probably why my previous album sounds not so hot when streamed and on the CD Baby YouTube vids.

[JD01]

Hmmm, if it’s one song causing you an issue do you think you’re better of revisiting the mix of that particular track?
Interested to see how you get on with this though, mate.

[ocnor]

I recently acquired a copy of Ozone 8 Elements for free. Plugin Boutique has a deal where you get the Ozone plugin for free if you purchase another plugin from them. I bought some crappy plugin that cost $1. https://www.pluginboutique.com/articles/1392

[Armistice]

Hmmm, if it’s one song causing you an issue do you think you’re better of revisiting the mix of that particular track?
Interested to see how you get on with this though, mate.

Well it's the third song. I don't know how the rest will go - they could be worse - there's nothing particular in this mix that's jumping out at me as causing the issue. So I'm aware that i'm using a clipper/limiter as a mastering limiter so I decided that wasn't the best idea so I downloaded Unlimited VST, which seems to get good reviews and tried that on the track instead. I was able to get that track under control, with a few other changes in the chain - to a "not too hot" level.

So I went and redid the second song to bring the level down a touch to bring it back to the same level-ish as the third. Simple enough, then on the first I struck problems again... so I'm going to just leave it alone as I think it's fine, and plough on with the new limiter/chain and see where I get to.

What is interesting is the amount of information out now (maybe it was there before, I don't know) about how to master for streaming services, the entire LUFS thing and the different levels the various services use. I'll get to the streaming versions later, but from what I read, it's streaming services that have ended the "loudness war" because they will just turn it down if it's too hot and a turned down, heavily compressed tune is going to sound shite compared to a song that was mastered at the "correct" level in the first place.

Real learning experience but I feel there's a significant piece of information that I'm missing about how this all fits together. Anyway, onwards, and I'll see how the next couple go...

[JD01]

Cool, I’ll be really interested to see how you get on as you told me about event horizon which is what I “master” with in the first place. I’ve got 3 or 4 tracks now that I consider finished so if you can find a nice way of improving on Event Horizon caveman mastering that would be cool.

[Greg_L]

What is interesting is the amount of information out now (maybe it was there before, I don't know) about how to master for streaming services, the entire LUFS thing and the different levels the various services use. I'll get to the streaming versions later, but from what I read, it's streaming services that have ended the "loudness war" because they will just turn it down if it's too hot and a turned down, heavily compressed tune is going to sound shite compared to a song that was mastered at the "correct" level in the first place.

Real learning experience but I feel there's a significant piece of information that I'm missing about how this all fits together. Anyway, onwards, and I'll see how the next couple go...

Yeah the LUFS shit is a massive clusterfuck. I hate it.

[Armistice]

Cool, I’ll be really interested to see how you get on as you told me about event horizon which is what I “master” with in the first place. I’ve got 3 or 4 tracks now that I consider finished so if you can find a nice way of improving on Event Horizon caveman mastering that would be cool.

What I'm trying at the moment is:

Basslane - set at 200Hz
"Warmer"
Mastering EQ
ReaComp on its Master Bus Glue setting, going for about 2dB reduction then adding that back in via the Wet control
GClip to add volume and clip of transients ever so slightly
Unlimited (my new limiter)

Then monitoring EQ in Voxengo Span
Levels in YouLean Loudness Meter 2
LEVELS (14 day trial) for peaks

I'm trying to get LUFS at 10-11 for CD - quieter than I've done before, but sounds a bit nicer.

I'll remaster for streaming at about -14 LUFS - hoping that's just turning the limiter down a bit!

Seems to be working. Sorted track 1 out after a bit of remixing and I'm now onto #6. Pain in the arse but definitely nicer sounding - I hope anyway.

[Armistice]

Yeah the LUFS shit is a massive clusterfuck. I hate it.

I know - because it's relative and still a developing algorithm. You can see differences in loud v sparser tracks - I'm not trusting it - so I'm trying to get them all the same LUFSwise and then I'll line them up together and see how the same they really are.

[Greg_L]

I know - because it's relative and still a developing algorithm. You can see differences in loud v sparser tracks - I'm not trusting it - so I'm trying to get them all the same LUFSwise and then I'll line them up together and see how the same they really are.

I don't know the tech details, but if streaming sites would actually just turn it down instead of squashing it down, the sound quality wouldn't suffer and we wouldn't have to deal with LUFS. They've created more problems than they've solved.