true peak and what to do

stingray · May 26, 2013, 2:06pm

Mastering-Academy:

Surely, the EBU recommendation (-1dBTP) is chosen from the point of view of protection ie: ensuring that inter-sample peak distortion is avoided in the reproduction chain, or if the master was to be converted to a lossy format at a later date. > It is not some kind of manner in which we can apply a peak-based paradigm to a loudness meter. > Peak level settings as applied when using peak meters and peak-based mixing habits ceases to have the same relevance in the world of loudness meters. Clearly, an EBU R-128 meter is firmly concentrated upon the loudness values, and in this setting the peak values become secondary, and somewhat arbitrary, (although never to be completely ignored). Where you set your loudness values and how much compression you use are of course different discussions entirely.

Once again. This is the idea and basic concept of R128 and this is the future. But this will never ever work for CD releases.

Yes, agreed, R128 as a whole may not be applicable to CD releases but only in the current hyper-maximised scenario… there are a number of CD releases whose tracks fall close to or within its limits (admittedly many of these were produced before the loudness wars). However, in the case of dealing with true peaks, which is what I was referring to here, there is no real reason why all CD releases should not adhere to -1dBTP (and this not suggesting that we should follow R-128 recommendations, but that where peaks are concerned -1dBTP is probably a good guideline anyway). In any case, I think most would agree that some degree of headroom for peaks is good practice in CD mastering. Just how much headroom would seem to be debateable.