Meter shows the SECRET to Ultimate Hit Records
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Published 2024-06-16
What's this?
I can measure the hit-record-ness of audio, and rate it by how compelling and attention-getting it is, and also by how commercially successful it's likely to be. Those are NOT the same things, but points along a scale I can define as 'density of ear-catching events', where the 'vibe' of the hit record is determined by how intensely it hammers you with these events.
None of that has anything to do with 'maximum loudness' and in fact loudenating will hurt you, provably, and kills the energy-build whenever it kicks in. The secret is distribution of peak energy.
The events I'm talking about are the combination of PEAK (not RMS, you can safely ignore RMS. Really) energy and slew rate. There's a balance between these things and every known hit record noise, whether it's Steve Perry belting in Journey, or James Brown screaming (not shrieking: when he makes cat noises it's a completely different type of energy) or hard-hit drums mixed just perfectly or Burial hitting the perfect sub-bass or nearly everything in a Mutt Lange mix, nails this balance. It's most easily understood as 'the aura (of peak energy) given off by passionate performance' and it applies across the board, from Count Basie to Ace Of Base. (brief examples of each are given in the video)
The Airwindows Hit Record Meter (or 'Meter' as it'll show up in your DAW) will show this directly. Did you think you 'can't hear peaks'? Doesn't matter, now you can see them. And where you place them is hugely important. You can cram them all up as close to clipping as you can get, and have LOTS of them constantly, to get a sound that's just as attention-getting as any loudenated sound (as squashed sound cannot technically BE any louder than clipping, it can only have more distracting distortion layered on). Or, you can make sure you have some of the peaks crammed up toward clipping and doing their job optimally, while having the 'cloud' of peaks occupy a bigger space that is still constantly in flux.
And doing that consistently scores higher in Billboard chart rankings, and overall SALES, than the hyper-aggressive stuff. But the extreme stuff does get attention very well… and as long as the peaks (and their respective slews) are where you need them, it makes NO DIFFERENCE whether you have high or low RMS loudness and in fact you will do better, get more attention, and sell more records if you have the peaks maxed out and optimal, and the RMS as LOW as you can get it to be without losing the constant peak energy.
You can even target comfort and vibe while still having sparkle and peak energy by aiming for it using this meter.
These are strong claims but you know I've been working on this for literal decades and had the beginnings of this in 'Mastering Tools', which existed before any of my plugins, before 2007. This isn't new, I've just been able to put the work in and I figured it out. You don't even have to use my plugins to make stuff work using this meter: I try to make stuff that'll help, but you could do it with anyone's plugins, or with hardware and tape machines, or indeed with any basic DAW right out of (in the) box. It's all about shaping the peak energy, balancing it with slew, controlling the slew and creating the 'cloud of peaks' at the density you want, with the volume of the peaks constantly varying between whatever amount of 'space' you want (18 dB is a lot, 12 is nice, 6dB is getting on the loud and fatiguing side) and clipping, without actually clipping.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves and I'm not the only person able to tell you how to mix hit records, even classic evergreen ones. It just looks like I'm the first to be able to give you visual reference to what's supposed to be 'inaudible', and that's Meter. For now, try this meter and see if you can recognize the various hit formulas (for instance, vintage southern rock, or 80s, or intense sixties and fifties hits) and explore them a little.
All Comments (21)
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Chris, I first came across your plugins in the Surge synth. Then I downloaded all the Airwindows plugins and played around with each one extensively. Now I'm creating my own. You are an inspiration. Thank you for your work and effort. It means a great deal. Glad I found this channel.
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You did it Chris. Now you've really gone and done it. What if... what if because of this, somebody makes an album that I actually want to come into contact with my ears. That would be a surprise. I think I'm starting to get... stoked.
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Truly fascinating stuff you have uncovered, the connection with the sound of rain, and then the dynamics of the intensity of the rain, which really does invoke diferent feelings when you think about it.. Im guessing other natural sounds , either pleasent or unpleasent will follow these same patterns. I think a lot more connections will be made and a big window was just opened in understanding why music is the way it is and why we interpet it the way we do, or really why and how music emerged. You really should publish this in a scientific journal, not that that would mean anything, but this is something more than just a meter. Salute!
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Man, this is cool but you seriously need to write a manual for this.
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Thank you sir for pointing this one out. I'm all for ending the loudness wars and go back to normal levels.
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Thanks in advance for the additional videos you mentioned having planned, where we can hear music, especially as you adjust parameters, while watching the meter. I think that will help my understanding in a practical way, as this video helps me understand theoretically and establish a baseline using the rain examples. I'm not currently creating commercial music, so "sales" or similar metrics are secondary concerns. But I'd still like my mixing and mastering to be able to sound professional in some scenarios other than luck, so I'm looking forward to trying this out, and watching the additional videos. Cool, now to press Play again and finish this video... this is one where I can't afford to think and type while it's running... I've had to rewind a few times as it is, when I got lost in thought for 10 or 15 seconds🤣🙈🙉
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Wow, amazing stuff Chris. I never imagined metering could evolve in this way
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Jesus finally someone had the skill to code this. I tried to code something to just analise the variance and average frequencies in C , but my audio code skills are not good for that. More ro make systems and security than code audio stuff. Thank you for your awesome work
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Man... This is damned fascinating. And, in highlighting the overlap of hit song characteristics with that of rain, I feel this also leads toward explaining why people prefer vinyl; the noise of a needle dragging through a groove naturally gets pretty close to organic noises we're deeply coded to recognize and compensate for.
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Congrats and thanks for the plugin, Chris. A fascinating thing I found with your plugin is that tracks I made that are significantly quieter than others I also made seem louder because they have more "presence". Which can be translated as having more peak energy. A lot to learn.
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So good to see you are still at it Chris and progressing into the realms of GUI, with this analysis of the 'Hit Sounds' and a GUI to show you, that is some achievement. Thank You once again.
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These plugins are amazing. The knowledge imparted is astonishing. I listened to "Natural One" the other day and was like, "Oh, yeah, that, a real band, real room mics, that's what live sounds like." At some point, records will not be released as "audio" but rather as a mathematical representation. Then we'll be able to apply processing like this to make it sound how we most enjoy listening. Personally, I can't wait for the "don't apply autotune" button.
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this is impressive Chris. thank's for sharing all this/your research, work and knowledge to the community!
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Chris, you are a gift! Thank you!
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This is a super nice helpful tool and your rain analogy really bring the whole idea into focus. Thanks Chris. new Sub here.
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Fantastic work as always! Big congrats on finally getting this one out!
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Astounding. This is really fascinating stuff. You really make innovative tools! Saving this, can't wait to dig in a bit later soon as time permits. Oh this is going to be so fun
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Wow just watch half of this video and begin to realize this video is a big thing going on for Music Inudustry
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I tested this out with tidal with songs by people that I know and songs that I worked on that got lots of views / steams etc. Not Billboard 100 but songs that actually gained traction. They all rose to the "Biggest" level or higher. Wow.
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Omg, it is done! Congratulations!
