ABSTRACT
The “loudness wars” is a subject likely familiar to the reader, but as a brief synopsis: when music level is increased, the listener’s ability to perceive low and high frequencies is enhanced. Sound quality increasingly deteriorates after a particular point of loudness processing, and a deficiency of dynamics detracts from perceived loudness when loud musical events fail to sound significantly louder than quieter events. The competitive loudness processing model faces potential defeat due to the audio playback and broadcast world’s ongoing adoption of loudness normalization technology. Very importantly, the gain offset of a loudness-normalized environment means there is no longer a “louder perceived better” advantage with loud masters. For the loudness-normalized version, inherent loudness measurements using an Loudness Units relative to digital Full Scale (LUFS) meter—preferably International Telecommunications Union’s-compatible with a true peak meter—are increasingly important. The “Loudness Range” measurement calculates the difference in loudness units between the highest and lowest LUFS levels, therefore quantifying the music’s loudness variations.
