Over the past 20 or so years, artists and producers alike have been trying, sometimes misguidedly, to achieve supreme loudness in their tracks and beats. It’s almost like as time went by and capabilities of dynamics processing (compressors, limiters etc) and mastering got more advanced, everyone began competing to see who could have the loudest pop records on the charts. If a client goes to get a track mastered and realizes that it’s not as loud as the newest Kanye West record, then he or she goes back to the mastering engineer and says, “try again pal, not loud enough”. If you are an artist who buys beats online, whether on Soundclick or otherwise, I’m sure you have heard what I’m talking about.
The video above (props to Streaky Mastering) makes a valid point in that there is a difference between actual loudness and perceived loudness. Usually artists will run to the mastering engineer and have him throw on a brickwall limiter such that all the peaks of the song are slammed at 0db. This causes the mix to lose dynamics and power and the whole song ends up sounding “crushed”. This is not what you want. A song or beat with a good balanced mix and tweaks in the right frequency ranges will invariably sound louder than a song with is totally crushed with a limiter just to achieve loudness comparable to the new Lady Gaga track. At the end of the day you’re buying beats, whether online or from a local beatmaker, because you want to make a top quality song.
Artists, when you’re looking to buy beats online, you should listen for songs with a good mix where the instruments and balanced and the low end has good power. The beats DO NOT need to be exceedingly loud. Here’s why:
- You buy the beat online and decide to record on it
- Your voice is added to the overall signal of the song
- Your voice has to be mixed so that it sits well on the beat and among the instruments
- Your finished song will most likely go through it’s own mastering process
If the beat is slammed to the maximum, there is no headroom at all for mastering. During the recording process, the engineer may even have to bring the level of the beat down to something more comfortable and that presents an even further challenge when mastering.
My advice: don’t just buy the loudest beats without listening for whether there is headroom left for your vocal or for further mastering. Your career depends on you putting your best foot forward.
