Soundcloud Sucks (Adds Compression To Clips)

[LLL]

I've noticed lately with my recent polished (fully compressed/limited) clips that Soundcloud is adding even more compression with their garbage whatever player or upload routine.

F'n Idiots.

(this is verified)

[Mincer]

I would think any service like Soundcloud will do that. I've not noticed it on sites like Bandcamp, though.

[devastone]

Yeah, I would think they would be compressing the files to play across the interwebs. Definitely not going to stream audiophile quality from any service.

[LLL]

I expect some compression, but it's really bad with a mostly polished clip.

This doesn't sound like typical hosting file compression or lower quality mp3 format, it actually sounds like a big slathering of audio compression on top of what has already been compressed/limited.

Interesting thing is I didn't notice it until I started really polishing my clips (recently, with my Apollo acquisition).

Years before, no problem - but I did a very basic limiter setup.

So, I either gotta not polish my clips (not bloody likely), or go for a lower LUFS when limiting.

[LLL]

Yep looks like -14 LUFS is the recommended. I was doing -9 LUFS (CD)

[TwilightOdyssey]

https://www.loudnesspenalty.com is your friend. It’s a really good tool for making sure your mix gets out there unscathed. I think SoundCloud’s audio codec is trash, personally, but I do have a premium account because it’s a very easy way to get your music to other people.

Do you frequent TGP or SOS, LLL? I spend more time on SOS than SDUGF these days, and these types of topics will get far greater traction there than here, with only a handful of members interested in this sort of stuff. It’s a bit of an echo chamber here as a result. I’m not a fan of TGP, but it’s wildly popular. It has a lot of ‘internet wisdom’ based on folks just blindly quoting other folks, I find SOS has more actual engineers who make their living engineering that post, but I could be mistaken about TGP, too.

[VinceT]

Search YouTube - mastering engineers have been mastering for streaming at -14 LUFS for a while - on the upside, it’s having a positive effect on the loudness wars - on the downside, it can compress tracks that are mastered hotter. I’m currently aiming my masters at -12 LUFS as I haven’t burned anything to CD for years.

[TwilightOdyssey]

You have to weigh LUFS v average Peak. Either measurement in isolation doesn’t tell you much.

[Aceman]

You should set up your studio upload site for the recording connoisseur.