Loudness
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Audio for Mobile, iPad and iPod

By Thomas Lund

For five years, the author has systematically studied the audio capabilities of Pod and Mobile TV devices from Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. This paper is the first public report from parts of the test investigating what a Mobile user is able to hear, and what she can't.

Published at NAB 2013, Las Vegas.

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Señales de audio para TV móvil, iPad e iPod

By Thomas Lund

Durante cinco años, el autor de este artículo ha estudiado de forma sistemática las capacidades audio de los dispositivos para TV móvil y Pods de Apple, Nokia, Samsung y Sony Ericsson. Este artículo es la primera presentación ante del público de una parte de las pruebas e investigaciones acerca de lo que un usuario de dispositivos móviles es capaz de oír, y lo que no.

Publicado en NAB 2013, Las Vegas

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The CALM Act and Cross-platform Broadcast

By Thomas Lund

This paper details the loop spanning from production to multi-platform delivery that paves the way for high-quality audio across genres and platforms. Optimized normalization for iPod and iPhone devices is reported, and the ongoing NoTube project is described.

Published at NAB 2012, Las Vegas.

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Loudness Range Design and Evaluation

By Esben Skovenborg

In 2009 we published the algorithm for computing LRA that was included in the EBU R-128 recommendation for loudness normalisation. This paper describes the design choices underlying of the LRA algorithm.

Published at AES 2012, Budapest.

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Momentary Loudness: RMS Filter Options

By Esben Skovenborg & Thomas Lund

Employing loudness meters provides an efficient way of balancing the levels of broadcast programs and channels in order to prevent the viewer/listener from experiencing annoying level jumps.

Published March 2012.

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The BS.1770 Broadcast Standard Revisited

By Thomas Lund

The ITU standard has been updated to BS.1770-2. It now works across genres, for instance between commercials and regular programming. Transparency is a must for the broadcaster, for the producer, and wrt legislation such as the CALM Act. Coherent new EBU R128 tools are also described.

Published at NAB 2011, Las Vegas.

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Gated Loudness Measuring

By Grimm, Skovenborg & Spikofski

Loudness normalization as specified by ITU-R BS.1770-1 works fairly well for most broadcast programs. However, wide loudness-range programs may not be well-aligned with other programs. Adding a measurement gate provides a simple yet effective solution.

Published at AES 2010, London.

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Program Loudness and Loudness Range

By Esben Skovenborg & Thomas Lund

EBU P/LOUD devoted much time to finding a transparent cross-genre measure for program normalization. This paper was part of that process. It also describes the Loudness Range, examines the listener's loudness jump tolerance, and presents the Zap test.

Published at AES 2009, New York.

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Universal Loudness Descriptors

By Esben Skovenborg & Thomas Lund

The paper presents two descriptors, "Center of Gravity" and "Consistency", to summarize the loudness properties of film, music and broadcast programs and tracks. Applications include delivery specifications, diagnostics, logging and metadata delivery, for instance for use with MPEG and AC3 codecs.

Published at AES 2008, San Francisco.

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Inter-program Level Jumps in Broadcast

By Thomas Lund

DTV experiences a growing problem with level jumps between programs; especially when wide dynamic range programming is followed by commercials, promos or sports. Important contributors to such inter-program level jumps have been investigated and are reported.

Published at Broadcast Asia 2008, Singapore.

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Real-Time Visualisation of Loudness

By Esben Skovenborg & Søren H. Nielsen

A novel real-time loudness meter is presented, which simultaneously shows short-term loudness, long-term loudness and peak level.

Published at DAFx 2007, Bordeaux.

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Stop Counting the Samples

By Thomas Lund

Report from the frontline of the CD Loudness war, 2006: It's not over yet. Read about distortion developing in CD players, data reduction systems etc. The Appendix suggests improved procedures to follow in production and mastering.

Published at AES 2006, San Francisco.

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Control of Loudness in Digital TV

By Thomas Lund

Paper describing various loudness measurement models and their limitations. Consumer Dynamic Range Tolerance (DRT) is quantified, and station infrastructure taking DRT into account is presented.

Published at NAB 2006, Las Vegas.

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Evaluation of Different Loudness Models

By Esben Skovenborg & Søren H. Nielsen

The ability of twelve loudness models to measure speech and music segments is evaluated. Leq(A) and Leq(M) are among the worst performers, while Leq(RLB) from an ITU experiment, and new advanced models, correlate better with extensive listening tests.

Published at AES 2004, San Francisco.

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Designs for Loudness-Matching Experiments

By Esben Skovenborg & Søren H. Nielsen

Different loudness experimental designs are compared, and the effect of using a fixed-reference is evaluated against a balanced pair-matching design.

Published at SOAS 2004, Poznan.

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Loudness Assessment of Music and Speech

By Esben Skovenborg, Rene Qesnel & Søren H. Nielsen

An experiment was performed to investigate the assessment of loudness of music and speech using a General Linear Model.

Published at AES 2004, Berlin.

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Level Control in Digital Mastering

By Søren H. Nielsen & Thomas Lund

Music mastering is becoming a battle for maximum level rather than a quest for audio quality, because counting consecutive samples at OdBFS is not an adequate restriction of level.

Published at AES 1999, New York.

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The Secret of the Mastering Engineer

By Bob Katz

Mastering is an art and a science. In this acclaimed booklet, Bob Katz shares good advice about monitoring, metering and processing. About listening to the music and supporting it as the road to Nirvana - from one of the true yogis of our industry.

Published at SOAS 2004, Poznan.

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10 Things You Need to Know About Loudness

EBU provides a brief overview of 10 basic topics you need to know about loudness. Not in detail, but you will get a good starting point to build on.

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