@tomic601 ,
"OP strict level matching is essential."
"As you probably already know, the ear brain likes louder and louder is just chasing your tail from a qualitative perspective, unless you can level match."
A couple of excellent and informative posts.
I don’t even bother comparing different masterings of favourite tracks unless I can level match them first.
Far too many times what, at first listen, seemed like obvious differences mysteriously disappeared into the ether once their volumes were matched. To all intents and purposes, what were quite different recordings all of a sudden became identical.
I’m not sure if I ever managed to get within 0.25db though, but it did really help me to distinguish between different recordings.
To claim that level matching is unimportant for evaluating components (or individual tracks) is either an example of naivety or an attempt at deliberate misdirection.
"OP strict level matching is essential."
"As you probably already know, the ear brain likes louder and louder is just chasing your tail from a qualitative perspective, unless you can level match."
A couple of excellent and informative posts.
I don’t even bother comparing different masterings of favourite tracks unless I can level match them first.
Far too many times what, at first listen, seemed like obvious differences mysteriously disappeared into the ether once their volumes were matched. To all intents and purposes, what were quite different recordings all of a sudden became identical.
I’m not sure if I ever managed to get within 0.25db though, but it did really help me to distinguish between different recordings.
To claim that level matching is unimportant for evaluating components (or individual tracks) is either an example of naivety or an attempt at deliberate misdirection.