What does "Loudness Equalization" do and what should I set it to?

Rammstein420 said:

The Propertie's Enhancement tab says "Loudness Equalization uses understanding of human hearing to reduce preceived volume differences, (can someone explain to me what this means exactly?) I have tried using my headphones with and without it on and I just notice volume changes but I've never examined if it had any ill effects (like music being played inaccurately) and if I do enable it in the Loudness Equalization Settings it gives a scroll bar titled "Release Time" and it goes between long and short what does this release time setting mean? (Sorry I know I must sound silly asking such a question.)

And by the way my Windows version is: Windows Home 64-bit 10.0.19042 Build 19042 if that matters.

Have you ever watched a movie where the sound effects were very loud but you could hardly hear the voices of the actors?

That's what "reduce perceived volume differences" is for. In my example, it would lower the volume of the sound effects and raise the volume of the actors voices.

In music, it might lower the volume of the instruments and raise the volume of the singer's voice, or visa versa.

Let's say you're listening to... "Another One Bites the Dust", and the base is so loud you can't hear the singer's voice.
With a regular equalizer you could lower the volume(s) of the lower frequencies and raise the volume on the mid range frequencies.



"Loudness equalization" uses some formula or algorithm to "equalize" the various frequencies in music so you can hear ALL the frequencies instead of just some of them.

In other words, you'd be able to hear the violins and the vocals and the bass, without one area drowning out the others.

I can't recall seeing that exact term, but I'd guess it's the same or similar to what used to be called "loudness compensation", which was a button found on stereo receivers that boosted certain frequencies and was useful when listening at relatively low volumes.

It's a way to counter-act (for the better) the inherent weaknesses of human hearing.

What should you set it to?? Set it to whatever you like best, no more and no less. If you can't tell the difference, then obviously it doesn't matter. No 2 sets of ears respond in the same way. If you are of a certain age, your hearing likely has far more significant issues. If you've spent 30 years as a Catskinner, you probably have very little high frequency hearing at all.


Loudness compensation - Wikipedia


Also, investigate the Fletcher Munson effect:

Loudness And The Fletcher-Munson Curve | KMUW

@Rammstein420

A good song for testing is Jethro Tull's "Velvet Green". Listen to this especially when the singer and all the instruments are going at the same time.

You'll notice that you can hear each and every instrument and the singer, and be able to pick out one or the other at will.
This is fair example of loudness equalization applied at the source... when it was recorded.

For songs that weren't equalized when recorded, your "loudness equalization" button should help.









This is a digital Equalizer. Low frequencies on the left, to high frequencies on the right.

It's basically just compression. Makes the quiet parts louder, leaves the loud parts as they were. It is not individual voices or instruments that get changed though, it is the entire audio stream. Helps with movies where the voices are hard to hear and the explosions or music is stupid loud, as mentioned. Kinda messes up music (as in listening to music, not music in a movie) though, makes it turn up and down at odd times and sounds unnatural.

The release time in compression is for how long it continues to boost volume after the quiet part stops, if I remember correctly. I'd say set it to short or medium (so it doesn't linger and boost the loud parts) unless it sounds funny.