Andre van Haren writes: Quote Hi! How much mastering would a piano solo album need? Having 12 tracks all recorded with the same piano? Would it be a matter of only volume balancing and limiting to -0.3 ceiling? End quote Hi Andre - It would depend on the musical style.. For classical piano minimum processing [as you described] would be the usual approach; for pop music a little more EQ/compression might be applied for a more aggressive/commercial piano sound. Note: If you're planning to stream the tracks the maximum peak level standard for that is usually a -1 ceiling -- check out the "New Scales & Standards" video [#12]

Hi Joe, thanks for your answer. What about compression on classical music? (I compose mainly classical style music, not pop music). I ripped a CD with piano music (Chopin Polonaises), dated 1976. Looking at the wave form it looks like there wasn't any compression done at all, it has a large dynamic range and has lots of high transients. Peak is -0.0DB, LUFS is -18.44. Should compression be less when working with classical music? thanks! best wishes, André

Hi André - With classical music recordings generally the approach has often been to use as little processing as possible [or even no processing]. In the analog era some compression was necessary with recordings that had a very wide dynamic range, simply to make them fit in the limited dynamic range of older media [tape, vinyl], but with modern 24-bit digital there's really no technical need for compression. However, a separate master for 16-bit CD duplication might employ a little more compression for very-wide-range recordings. Another consideration might be whether the playback systems and playback environments of the target audience would be capable of handling a very wide-range dynamic recording, but for the highest-fidelity recordings -- especially for audiophile market -- compression could be minimized or avoided. The recording you mentioned seems to fit with a minimal-processing approach. Current recommendations for average level are between -20 LUFS [classica] and -16 LUFS [pop], with peak level around -1dBfs [or -2] to avoid potential inter-sample peaks which could [at least in theory] cause some distortion in playback on lower-quality playback systems. The use of brickwall limiting as a tool to increase average level is [hopefully] on its way out, returning to its original purpose of simple protection against digital overloads.

Thanks, Joe. You comments and the course are very helpful! Have a great weekend! best wishes, André

Hi Joe, after working on mastering my album tracks for some time using the LUFS and True Peak for Spotify, I have still a question. How can I get both the LUFS level at -14 and the True Peak at -1? When having the LUFS correct, the Peak is still around -4, but boosting the Gain plugin to reach -1 Peak also increases of course the LUFS. What approach should I use here? Thanks! André

Hi Andre - The peak levels don't have to reach -1, that's just a maximum limit. If the LUFS level is at -14 and the transient peaks are not strong enough to hit -1TP that's perfectly fine, no need to do anything -- just leave the LUFS level as is.

Great, thanks!