“Unlike R128 and BS. 1770 meters, DR measures dynamic range from the perspective of a music engineer’s needs. In contrast, R128 and 1770 are designed to control loudness for commercials , not measure dynamic range for music, especially pop music. DR isn’t designed for broadcast loudness control, it’s purpose is to gauge the amount of dynamic range reduction, or the absence of dynamic range contrast. Designed by a member of the EBU ploud committee, the same body that created R128, DR informs an engineer about how much the mix is being or has been “stepped on,” dynamic range-wise, not about “will it pass through a broadcast chain without loudness reduction?”
R128 is great for volume leveling. But, it’s DR numbers are terrible as an indicator for compressed recordings. That is not just an opinion. It is a consensus amongst people that actually know what they are talking about.
You remember those two “Thriller” masterings I mentioned earlier? The R128 system pegs both of their average DR at 4. The crest factor system used by the DR Database has the the download at 7 and the SACD at 14. The download is indeed highly compressed while the SACD is not.
The above is not an isolated case. It is typical. R128 does a very poor job of measuring what we, as music lovers, want to measure.
