Inspired by the K-system

[RobC]

Like I said once before, I like the idea behind the K-system, but I also like to personalize things.

What I would 'maybe' change is, the use of pink noise for calibration. I would rather equalize the calibration noise with the help of some reference songs. Afterwards, I would normalize maybe a 5 minute sample of the equalized noise, to see what peak volume really fits into the digital full scale. Yes, I know this can vary, but I'd say it would be a 'fair chance' for peaks to pop out - and remember, this is more of a 'personalized' approach, than 'standardized'.

The rest of the calibration with the equalized calibration noise, would go similarly to the K-system, with the difference, that you decide how much headroom you would like to add, or maybe take away.

I explained in this post, how I'd design sounds so that they make complete use of varying headrooms: (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7514165&hilit=k+system)

The reason for why I re-thought the K-system was, that I recently read into that paper, and noticed the scary word, 'compressed', when it came to my targeted K-14 system. I felt that I rather want to design sounds to fit their volume into the digital full scale and make use of the dynamics, instead of working traditionally, design freely, and then making the sacrifice of applying compression to what doesn't fit.

I understand the idea behind and the purpose of standardizing, and matching volumes/loudness; but I kind of prefer a personal touch, so it's not all so 'industrialized'. It 'could' work, if it were about art and the material you're working on ~ as long as it doesn't go the wrong way, such as loudness competition. It should be about the music, to make it sound as good as possible. That way, the volume differences between songs wouldn't be that drastic either, in my opinion.