The new documentary Road Diary will offer unprecedented access to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2023-2024 world tour. Coming to Hulu and Disney+ in October.
Springsteen and The E Street Band offer the most in-depth look ever at the creation of their legendary live performances in the new documentary featuring unprecedented, behind-the-scenes access to their 2023-2024 world tour. “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band” opens a new door to Springsteen’s creative process for fans around the world, sharing fly-on-the-wall footage of band rehearsals and special moments backstage - as well as hearing from Springsteen himself.
These conversations follow Springsteen closely as he develops the story he wants to tell with this tour’s setlist - interspersed with rare archival clips of The E Street Band, underscoring themes of life, loss, mortality and community. In this way, it serves as an essential and never-before-seen chapter in an autobiographical series spanning Springsteen’s memoir “Born to Run,” “Springsteen on Broadway,” and the films “Western Stars” and “Letter to You.”
The film was directed by Springsteen’s longtime collaborator, Emmy and GRAMMY Award winner Thom Zimny (“Western Stars,” “The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash,” “Springsteen on Broadway,” “Willie Nelson & Family,” “Sly”), and produced by Zimny, Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen, Adrienne Gerard and Sean Stuart. The film begins with a one-of-a-kind look at the band’s preparation process, following them from their earliest rehearsals in Red Bank, New Jersey, to performances for tens-of-thousands across continents. All the while, fans get the chance to experience professionally shot footage from the 2023-2024 tour for the first time ever - in addition to hearing firsthand from band members about performing on stage with Springsteen and how they keep the magic of The E Street Band as potent as ever.
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band capped the first 2024 leg of their world tour in April; a cross-country U.S. run that brought surprise guests, blistering three-hour shows and setlist rarities (totaling 60 different songs through 11 performances). The band is in the midst of playing 25 shows throughout Europe this spring and summer - after last year’s European tour sold 1.6 million tickets - and will return to North America for more dates from August through late November.
For more information, please visit brucespringsteen.net.
LUFS offers three different readings, with LUFS long-term, or integrated, being the one digital streaming platforms are paying the most attention to.
Streaming platforms each have their own volume standards for uploaded audio, and if you don’t cater your mixes to each, you risk losing some dynamic range.
Here’s the scenario: You’ve finished your latest masterpiece, and now it’s time to start considering how your mixes and their loudness levels will be perceived across all digital platforms (Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, etc.). In addition, you might also make sure your music adheres to the strict audio broadcast standards used in film, TV, podcasts, video games, and immersive audio formats like Dolby Atmos.
These considerations, among many others, are typically reserved for mastering engineers. However, you may not have the budget for a mastering engineer, so in the meantime I’d like to give you some expert advice on making sure your loudness levels are in check before you release your music into the wild. Tighten up your belts, the Dojo is now open.
Hail LUFS Metering!
LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is unique in that it is attempts to measure how the human brain perceives loudness, which is accomplished by using a K-weighted scale with 400 ms “momentary” measurement windows (each overlapping the other by 75 percent), resulting in super smooth and accurate readings. This momentary method also allows for additional LUFS short-term and long-term readings (Fig.1), and it is this later measurement, LUFS long-term (aka LUFS integrated), that all of the digital music platforms will be placing their utmost attention upon. For those who are curious, the K-weighted audio scale places less emphasis on bass frequencies and more on higher frequencies above 2 kHz—and is a refined emulation of how humans perceive sound. It is not a musical scale like C harmonic minor, but rather a scaled algorithm for measuring frequencies.
The Wild West of dBs
Less than 10 years ago, there was no loudness standard for any of the audio-streaming platforms. In 2021, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) issued their guidelines for loudness of internet audio-streaming and on-demand distribution in a document named AESTD1008.1.21-9, which recommends the following:
News/talk: -18 dB LUFS
Pop music: -16 dB LUFS
Mixed format: -17 dB LUFS
Sports: -17 dB LUFS
Drama: -18 dB LUFS
However, most services have their own loudness standards for music submission.
“We adjust tracks to -14 dB LUFS, according to the ITU 1770 (International Telecommunication Union) standard. We normalize an entire album at the same time, so gain compensation doesn’t change between tracks.” —Spotify
They are not alone; YouTube, Tidal, and Amazon also use this measurement. Deezer uses -15 dB LUFS and Apple Music has chosen -16 dB LUFS, while SoundCloud has no measurement at all.
To make things more confusing, some services automatically normalize songs to match their predefined LUFS target. Think of normalization as a way of dynamically homogenizing all audio on their platform to the same volume level, regardless of genre or decade. This ensures that the listening end-user will never have the need to adjust their volume knob from song to song.
“Think of normalization as a way of dynamically homogenizing all audio on their platform to the same volume level, regardless of genre or decade.”
What does that mean for your music? If you upload a song to Spotify above -14 dB LUFS, they will turn it down and you’ll lose dynamic range. If the song is below -14 dB LUFS, they will normalize it, or in other words, turn it up to match all the songs on the platform—you can turn it off if you choose—but you’ll also still suffer some dynamic-range loss.
However, that same quiet song on YouTube will not be turned up even though they use the same -14 dB LUFS target. Apple Music normalizes, and will turn up quieter songs relative to peak levels and use both track and album normalization. Deezer and Pandora always use normalization, but only on a per-track basis, while Tidal uses album normalization. Confusing, right? So, how can we make our mixes sound their very best and perhaps get an idea of what it will sound like on various platforms?
1. Before you use any type of plugin (compression, limiting, EQ) on your stereo bus, make sure your dynamic range within the song itself is intact, and nothing peaks over 0 dBFS on your meters—no little red lights should be triggered.
2. Use an LUFS metering plugin like Waves’ WLM ($29), FabFilter’s Pro-L 2 ($169), or Izotope’s Insight ($199).
3. Set your true peak limiter to -1 dB and your long-term LUFS to -14 dB, and you’ll be in the sweet spot.
4. Play your song from beginning to end, look at the readings, and adjust gain accordingly.
Next month, I’ll be showing you some creative ways to use reverb! Until then, namaste.
Walrus Audio Canvas Power Supplies offer up to 500mA of clean, isolated 9V power with modern features like a power meter, variable outputs, and worldwide voltage compatibility.
Each output in the Canvas Power Supplies delivers up to 500mA of silent, isolated, and clean 9V power. Built upon modern switch mode supply architectures, these power supplies ensure each output is isolated, highly efficient, and heavily filtered, guaranteeing ample power with incredibly low noise.
Canvas Power is available in four different sizes with the option of five, eight, fifteen, or an impressive capable, twenty-two outputs and can be purchased as stand-alone units or linkable units via a 24v power link to seamlessly adapt to your growing pedal collection. Other modern features include a power meter, 9-12V variable outputs, a USB C port, included mounting options, and custom barrel cables made to fit in the tightest of pedalboard layouts. Canvas Power is also tour-ready with its worldwide voltage-compatible DC brick.
Canvas Power supplies are packaged in a custom powder-coated black aluminum enclosure. The die-cast enclosure’s exact sizes are:
- Power 5: 5.23in x 2.12in x 1in
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Walrus Audio is offering The Canvas Power supplies starting at $169.99. Join us in celebrating the release of Walrus Audio Canvas Power, available now at walrusaudio.com and authorized dealers worldwide.
For more information, please visit walrusaudio.com.