KVR Audio

NeuKatalYst · Post by **NeuKatalYst** » Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:57 am

I've voted - super fun round! Sad we can't "go to 11" with effects more often, but I'm sure the exception was imposed to exercise our sound design skills on two plugins that are otherwise fairly limited.

The OSC has introduced me to some cool plugins; in particular, I'll be keeping VSCO2 Percussion around, as it's a nice collection of "school band-room" percussion that commercial libraries would overprocess and overcomplicate, or even split into a bunch of separate libraries (gross).

I digress, though. Once again: I've voted.

neverbeeninariot · Post by **neverbeeninariot** » Sat Dec 09, 2023 5:34 pm

Voted. Good luck everyone : )

DaveClark · Post by **DaveClark** » Sun Dec 10, 2023 10:41 pm

Hi all,

One listener asked who had advised me that the level of tracks submitted to SoundCloud should be normalized to -3dB, and remarked that this sounded dubious. I agree, but it was from my reading of the OSC FAQs:

"For best sounding results, upload in an uncompressed format (wav or aif) and keep a headroom of 3db (levels not maxed out)."

https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/faq

I've never done it in the past, but OK....

After listening to all the other tracks, I don't believe that most others are keeping 3 dB of headroom in their submissions.

neverbeeninariot · Post by **neverbeeninariot** » Sun Dec 10, 2023 11:28 pm

DaveClark wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2023 10:41 pm Hi all,

One listener asked who had advised me that the level of tracks submitted to SoundCloud should be normalized to -3dB, and remarked that this sounded dubious. I agree, but it was from my reading of the OSC FAQs:

"For best sounding results, upload in an uncompressed format (wav or aif) and keep a headroom of 3db (levels not maxed out)."

https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/faq

I've never done it in the past, but OK....

After listening to all the other tracks, I don't believe that most others are keeping 3 dB of headroom in their submissions.

Same here, I've never followed that advice (actually didn't even notice it in the faq) - I'm usually at -1db before lossy encoding. Loudness is variable but usually around 10 lufs or so.

empphryio · Post by **empphryio** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 12:17 am

I go to -0.1 and LUFS 10 to 15.

NeuKatalYst · Post by **NeuKatalYst** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 1:07 am

I do 0dB True Peak; and between -7 to -10 LUFS, usually about -8.

Everyone's different, and the various platforms are too, so the best an individual can do is find a good average that works for their type of music.

ELEX · Post by **ELEX** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 9:47 am

Soundcloud itself states:

"We recommend you to upload in a lossless format like WAV, FLAC, AIFF, or ALAC. If you can, the bit depth and sample rate should be 16 bit and 48 kHz respectively.

When you upload a track on SoundCloud, we optimize it for streaming. As part of that process, we resample and transcode it to a high-performance codec. These codecs are highly optimized, but they can increase peak levels, which can cause clipping. We recommend that you leave between -0.5 and -1 dBFS of headroom to prevent artifacts like clipping during transcoding. Make sure to check the resulting stream in the rare case where more headroom is required."

DaveClark · Post by **DaveClark** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:15 pm

Thanks. That's probably where I got my settings from, years ago: about -0.5 dB for Samplitude Master and -0.6 dB for Cubase (whatever it is that the faders jump to near those values).

Negoba · Post by **Negoba** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:23 pm

I voted.

FWIW I limit at -0.5 to 1 dB and aim for -13 LUFs based on what I've seen online.

doctorbob · Post by **doctorbob** » Mon Dec 11, 2023 5:29 pm

Negoba wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:23 pm ... I limit at -0.5 to 1 dB and aim for -13 LUFs

I limit the same, but aim more for -14 I-LUFS. I seem to have my ears tuned into that loudness now, quite often get there at mix stage before any master fx are kicked in, so there is little to do bar a few EQ, M/S, and minor m/b comp duties!

dB

empphryio · Post by **empphryio** » Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:18 am

ELEX wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 9:47 am Soundcloud itself states:

"We recommend you to upload in a lossless format like WAV, FLAC, AIFF, or ALAC. If you can, the bit depth and sample rate should be 16 bit and 48 kHz respectively.

When you upload a track on SoundCloud, we optimize it for streaming. As part of that process, we resample and transcode it to a high-performance codec. These codecs are highly optimized, but they can increase peak levels, which can cause clipping. We recommend that you leave between -0.5 and -1 dBFS of headroom to prevent artifacts like clipping during transcoding. Make sure to check the resulting stream in the rare case where more headroom is required."

Should we be using 16/48 or 24/44.1? If the latter, why is soundcloud saying 16/48?

violator_alba · Post by **violator_alba** » Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:27 am

That's me done voting!

NeuKatalYst · Post by **NeuKatalYst** » Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:39 am

empphryio wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:18 am Should we be using 16/48 or 24/44.1? If the latter, why is soundcloud saying 16/48?

I've always done 24bit and 44.1. Soundcloud, and others, simply RECOMMEND settings for you to use, but you can do whatever you want, based on what's worked for you.

empphryio · Post by **empphryio** » Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:19 pm

I'm not asking if I'm allowed to use different settings. Was just curious why they recommend that. Anyway I just googled and doesn't seem to be any great reason.

ELEX · Post by **ELEX** » Tue Dec 12, 2023 1:46 pm

Soundcloud's HQ playback format probably uses 48/16. Would make sense then to upload ( lossless format ) tracks with the same properties. It would simply minimize the chance of ( possibly unpredictable ) losses in translation.

One Synth Challenge #177: Synful Orchestra & VSCO2 Percussion (silverpants Wins!)