SAE Magazine 13-2

92 SAE Institute Mexico is always looking for ways to let their students get face-to-face with the industry and the great people behind its success. So it was a delight to welcome Ian Shepherd to SAE Institute Mexico. For him, mastering could be compared to photo- graphy. That is because that image improvement processes are similar to those used in master- ing, where the whole image is worked rather than individual elements of it. Our esteemed visitor demonstrated how song’s dynamic range has been decreasing; pointing out that it is common to have four to six decibels (dBs) of it nowadays. He recommended the free plug-in TT Dynamic Range, available at www.pleasurizemusic.com just by registering. It is a very useful tool to highlight just how much dynamic range has worsened. After explaining how measuring tools work, he demonstrated, using Spotify’s same volume for all tracks option, that over-compressing and clipping the signal is useless. To overcome this Ian suggested that we keep our dynamic range at least at eight dBs (DR8), with levels of -9 Loudness Units Full Scale (LUFS) and minus eight dB RMS. He ended by talking abou in association with MeterP Through playback gain it them at the same level. Currently he runs the Prod where he established Dyn so that people could join a ness Wars. The term has and is now supported by industry like Solid State L Bowers and Wilkins. n People & Business // Ian Shepherd Ian Shepherd Fact-Fil ■ He was born in 1971. ■ He is the founder of D annual event raising awa Wars. ■ In 2009 he argued th lica’s Death Magnetic a compressed and distorte ■ Thanks to his comme people signed a petition be remixed and remaste

SAE Magazine 13-2

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