v0.1.4

The changes to this release are as follows: I've removed that little slider for 'vibe vs hype' because it's become clear that, instead of making the meter go high for various purposes, you must actually aim the meter's line at different targets to accomplish different things. For that reason I have a little clarifying text: you've got basic categories representing music purposes.

A - Attention, B - Biggest, C - Comfortable, D - Deep Vibe, E - even more chill.

(note from much later: all this translates to what is Sonority in the current version. It doesn't have any concept of novelty, so it's more or less 'purely peak loudness')

The meter actually works the same, but I've turned it loose on over 400 kinds of hit single across more than 80 years, from vinyl to CDs to hi-res downloads, and because you have to be able to aim the target line, I made it change color as it goes. The line's color reacts quicker to the same information coming in, so if it goes green it's aiming for 'mass appeal' and if it switches to blue it's aiming for 'attention', and then the position of the line will follow. That's more information coming in, so let's go over what these categories actually mean.

A can also mean Alienating, especially high A like AA rating. This is the stuff that can catapult an act into stardom or define their greatest (but not always best-selling) album. Examples: Birthday by the Beatles, Strobe by Deadmau5, I Feel You by Depeche Mode, Crazy Train by Ozzy, And You And I by Yes, Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, Dawn Chorus by Boards of Canada all have this sound. The energy level is like a wildly cheering screaming crowd. You can easily break this by distorting too hard. All My Life by the Foo Fighters would be AA rating, and is clearly trying to be, and then the last minute of the sound goes into loudness war distortion and it tops out at AC rating: it's clearly not intending to lose energy at the end, but it goes flat with distortion that wasn't as present before, and the energy falls off a cliff.

B is where you aim when the purpose isn't maximum hype at all costs, where you have other moods to express than raw excitement, but you still want the hugest hit possible. This region is loaded with Beatles, AC/DC, Boston, Eagles, U2, The Police, Nirvana (early CD masters), Springsteen: where A means you're pushing yourself to the limit of human expression and endurance, B means you're a musical athlete and you're laying it down. It's outperforming, but not so's it hurts. B tier is just a little more relaxed than A tier, so it sells better, but doesn't change people's lives as much. Biggest is probably where you aim if you want to make money and sell tickets, if you specialize in A tier you might stay more obscure: more is not always better. Bigger can be better.

C is arguably even more mass market (always assuming your song and beat is good: the meter ONLY knows about energy level as expressed in peak energy relative to slew). The spectrum is enormous, from Fleetwood Mac to Van Halen to Springsteen's hugest hits to the Police at their peak. You get the biggest hits from Crosby Stills and Nash, the Doobie Brothers, but you also get tracks like Everlong by the Foo Fighters, which is clearly trying to be AA rating but is squashed completely flat by distortion and limiting and ends up solidly CD rating (perhaps with more popular appeal because this smooths the hell out of it?) and hitting the market like a C tier, not an A tier. There are no Top Ten hits that are also AA rating. It's too much energy, you only start seeing Top Ten hits at AF and below, at energy and intensity levels that are more palatable to a broad audience. C tier is where that lives, in a big way. Corporate rock? For that reason, if you're designing a song towards an intention other than hype, you can adjust things to aim for C tier instead of just 'more'.

D tier is interesting because you've got to aim for it in multiple ways. It's sparser arrangements (though not always gentler), it's the domain of chill, and you can have enormous hits in D tier as well. Dreams by Fleetwood Mac is DC rated, open and spacious, never straining. Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire is DF. The Police's Wrapped Around Your Finger is DB. (Every Breath You Take is CE). James Taylor's Mexico is DA. This is where there's still life to the song, but the vibe is something you can bathe in: in this tier, if you add too much to the arrangement or push things too loud you ruin it, but there's typically still a lot of activity, it's not just quietness that produces D tier top ten hits. Neither Dreams nor Wrapped Around Your Finger consist of silences, they're just very sparse and open compared to heavy rock.

And lastly, E tier is actually hard to reach! On a track with peaks normalized to or near 0 dB it's hard to get here. Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall comes very close (DF) through sheer dynamic range and having most of the song incredibly quiet. Crosby Stills and Nash's Guinnevere is EA. James Taylor's Fire And Rain is EB, its loudest sounds being timpani-like tom rolls for effect. Pink Floyd's Grantchester Meadows almost defines the E tier, remaining a great and moving song while sung at barely a whisper, with its energy levels almost nonexistent. E tier probably means you've intended to aim there, and worked hard to restrain anything that might break the stillness, because almost anything you do will end up between D and B tier depending on how full the sound is: you don't get E tier by accident, and you won't get a hit record out of it. But if you were looking to soothe the savage ear, you might lean this direction.

Enjoy the plugin, whatever your goal :)