What is "Broadcast" Quality - Micro Dynamics & Loudness
As music producers, we are always concerned about getting our music to "broadcast" quality. This can mean many things (and I intend to talk about a lot)... But, one important aspect is micro dynamics and its relationship to loudness.
Unfortunately, with the loudness wars we have seen a war on headroom. Headroom is one way to think about what music sounds like when you have micro dynamics vs. when you don't. The less headroom you have, the less micro dynamics you have. That almost always threatens the broadcast quality of your track (unless it is essentially a drone :)
Today, I'll outline some measurements (dBTP vs. LUFS) that you can use to track your headroom and suggest ways to manage your headroom consciously. In future lessons, I'll talk a lot more about "broadcast" quality - which is sometimes artistic, rather than scientific...