I’m at the start of getting to know / understand these things, so don’t understand it all fully yet, but it’s definately interesting to get into these things. (I’ll research LUFS some time soon too:)
I was hoping to ask you one thing. So to simplifie things to understand them, I think my question would come down to what specifically focus on, when intending to measure this gear for the solo purpose of live venues?
As in: I know that streaming platforms also measure LUFS and stuff (and bring you down when too high), but that’s not what makes a rented PA for a DIY party starting to break up right? So to not make a PA clip (or hit the limiter of the venue), is PEAKs then the only thing to keep in check? That was my hypothesis. Or do I also need to account for certain amounts of LUFS for PA’s not to start reaching their limits?
Really appreciate you taking the time make and post these recordings! From these examples I think that Boum 1 sounds the loudest while still sounding clean.
If your goal is to avoid clipping then it’s indeed the peaks that matter. It’s a useful exercise to equalize the peaks of each recording to hear which configuration sounds the loudest (i.e. has the highest integrated LUFS). Though as Dave points out, it’s better to compare them based on int. LUFS so that you can really judge the character of the saturator & compressor. I should also point out that it’s quite difficult to compare the OTO boum with equal settings as you don’t have separate control of the threshold and make-up value (there is one magic knob that sets the ratio, threshold and make-up gain which makes it very quick and easy to control live).
I have a related question to this: How important is loudness (int. LUFS) when you play live? I understand that you want to use a compressor to tighten up your sound and lower the dynamics a bit and I make sure that the loudness of my tracks is consistent. But, I just assumed that as long as the signal of my devices is not clipping when it goes into the mixer/pa system, I’m good. The mixer can always amplify my sound to a sufficient loudness (so I don’t need to stress too much about LUFS and headroom). But maybe I’m totally wrong here. If somebody can give me a nerdy explanation of how this stuff actually works, that would be fantastic
Small but important correction: use short term, not integrated. Integrated takes the a stage over a longer window which is not very useful in this case. You want to compare on parts with a lot going on also to level each song with each other to get a nice leveling balance across the set.
It’s not. It’s just a tool to compare different songs with each other to level them out for a consistent set for example. Or in this case to compare different settings of “mastering” chains with each other through various recordings. It’s not needed to hit a certain number like people try with full to be released productions. The only important number is that the lufs for each recording reads the same.
This also applies to peak level. It’s very important to get a look at the peak level, but this will only make sense if the LuFS is reading the same for each recording. Otherwise peak level doesn’t really tell you anything. By making sure the levels match by reading LUFS readout, you get a good picture of which settings are actually making peaks louder and which settings are controlling peaks better.
word. Peak values by themselves are more or less useless for anything other than knowing whether your converter is clipping or not. You need something besides peak to give you more info, be it RMS, LUFS or whatnot
Incidentally, even LUFS isnt a perfect system for evaluating loudness of music… because music genres differ so wildly in terms of low end, among other things. It’s however the best system boffins have come up so far. It’s excellent for evaluating the perceived loudness of dialogue however!
I really like the ability to set the attack very slow in compressors, maybe I missed it in the video but on the panel it seems that it only goes up to 30ms, so hopefully it can be configured to go up to 200ms like on my Alesis 3630.
Haha actually talked about that and him and me as well think white gear has the big upside of being very nice when performing live in clubs and such. Much better readability. So not sure if he will go that route
will be perfect for this series.
