The AI Loudener from Techivation uses machine learning to increase track loudness without affecting peak levels. Below is a review of this deceptively simple plugin and some examples.
MACHINE LEARNING
Processing of audio has always been a genre-based and context-driven craft. No two situations are exactly alike so it makes sense that DSP algorithms that don’t address the nature of what is being processed will not perform as well as those that do. This underlies the premise behind AI Loudener and the approach by Technivation. By listening to a segment of audio to be processed, the plugin generates the internal calculations and adjustments needed to address the task at hand–make things louder.
THE AI LOUDENER INTERFACE
The interface for this plug is simple and to the point. There are just a few main controls:
Learn – which appears when the plug is first instantiated and enables the device to analyze your track
Drive – which controls perceived loudness and will affect tonal color as well
Output – which is a simple post plugin gain control
Opening the side menu will give you a couple of parameter choices:
Oversampling – Off to Ultra (8x)
Stereo Widening – on/off
The Learn control needs just 3.5 seconds of the loudest and busiest part of your track to do its thing. After learning the status of the DSP engine is displayed with textual descriptions like “50% Warm / 50% Punchy” or “80% Punchy, 20% Deep”, etc. This gives you some ideas of what the plugin is doing. But actual controls remain under the hood.
The Drive control allows the user to adjust the intensity of the plugin. The control affects the tone, stereo width, and perceived loudness.
You can crank up the oversampling to 8x the original sampling rate to reduce aliasing. There is also a useful click-free internal bypass for A/B comparisons.
EXAMPLES
Below are some examples of the AI Loudener being applied to a few unmastered tracks. Above each example is a description of the parameters and resulting Integrated LUFS. I used 8x oversampling for all examples and left the output gain control untouched in all examples for comparison purposes.
I’ll Be There
Original track -14.2 LUFS
AI Loudener (85% Transparent, 15% Warm) Drive 50% resulted in -13.7 LUFS
AI Loudener (85% Transparent, 15% Warm) Drive 75% resulted in -13.3 LUFS
AI Loudener (85% Transparent, 15% Warm) Drive 100% resulted in -12.2 LUFS
Take Care by SIGNALS
Original Track -15.1 LUFS
AI Loudener (85% Transparent, 15% Punchy) Drive 50% resulted in -14.3 LUFS
AI Loudener (85% Transparent, 15% Punchy) Drive 75% resulted in -14.0 LUFS
AI Loudener (85% Transparent, 15% Punchy) Drive 100% resulted in -13.2 LUFS
OTHER TECHIVATION PLUGINS
The M-Series released by Techivation was developed to achieve mastering standards but can be used in all phases of production. The developers used customer feedback from their T-Series to improve the DSP algorithms in this new product line.
Included are:
- M-Loudener – Dynamic Range Enhancer
- M-Blender – designed to resolved the problem of clashing frequencies
- M-Puncher – transient shaper
- M-Clarity – Dynamic Resonance Supressor
- M-De-Esser – Spectral Shaping De-Esser
- M-Compressor – Spectral Dynamic Processor
From the Techivation blog:
[The M-Series] algorithm is designed to deliver higher sound quality than 16X oversampling, while not requiring to oversample its processing at all. Or there is no ‘Lookahead’ feature available in the M-De-Esser, whereas you see it in the T-De-Esser Pro. That is because the spectral processing algorithm responds to inputs with precise timing and has no need for a ‘Lookahead’ feature.
I’m super impressed with Technivation products so far and will definitely be exploring their use in my workflow moving forward.
CONCLUSIONS
Simple, accurate, effective, and transparent are the best ways to describe the AI Loudener. It functions as advertised and can be the perfect tool for increasing perceived loudness without squashing the dynamics in nasty ways.
While there are AI-based audio processing tools being released all the time, many try to do too much or present all-in-one solutions that result in unintended extreme modifications and processing. There is something to be said for the modular approach taken by Techivation with each device optimized to do one specific thing very well. Fewer controls and better results–you can’t ask for much more than that.
EXTRAS
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