Hello fellow creators!
I understand that the louder your audio file is going into streaming service, the more likely it is to induce artifacts and sound bad.
Given that all tracks get normalized on streaming service, couldn’t you simply turn down the final limiter output to a safe range, and the song will sound of equal loudness, but less likely to have harsh artifacts on streaming service?
I am trying to figure out if this may be a smart move. You can see below the song I’m working on called National Anthem (by Shemar Pierre and Whiskerprince). The version the artist likes is sitting at -6.7 in EXPOSE. Also there is one version turned down to -8.1, and another one turned down even further. All 3 sound identical in EXPOSE when normalized.
I’ve been trying the Codec from ADPTR Streamliner. On Streamliner it seems that when I turn down the final limiter output (reducing the final loudness) the simulated artifacts are far less. So it seems to me that I could get an equal loudness song with less artifacts if I turn the master output down.
Of course artists playing files will always prefer the louder file, but this would just be for uploading the final masters to streaming service.
Does anyone have a reasoning on why this may be a bad or good idea? I know that many people upload LOUD files to streaming service with no hesitation. In this case the genre is hip-hop, so I want it to be as loud and clean as possible.
Thank you for any insights you may have! -Whisker (@whiskerprince)
See below for images:
