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Audio Analysis - Intensity question

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paulr:
Can anyone give me a very brief description of what Intensity is actually measuring?  I am thinking about making some Smartlists that use it, but there are some interesting results in my library...

Example:
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell - What Do You Want From Me: Intensity 5

Maybe I'm not thinking about it correctly, but that's a pretty mellow song...

I guess some combination of BPM and Intensity would be more of what I am looking for?

thanks in advance!

Paul

Matt:
Intensity is based around the idea that if a song has lots of variation in volume (meaning plenty of quiet portions), it's not too intense.  If the whole thing is loud, it's pretty intense.

Newer CDs are ofted mastered to have all the dynamic range compressed out of them.  Essentially that music is all loud and therefore "intense."

Intensity isn't an exact science, but it can be interesting and helpful in some cases.

paulr:
Thanks Matt!

I guess I will need to use a combination of Intensity and BPM then.  I think I can figure something out.

It would be nice if the recording companies gave up this loudness contest they seem to be stuck in.  =/

modelmaker:
As I remember from the 'old' days one of the selling points for converting to CDs from LPs was the CDs' ability to reproduce music with a wider dynamic range! How ironic.

paulr:
Indeed!

I just added the Intensity column to my full library view so I could take a look at it...

There's a definite trend.  CD's produced back in the 80's have a more reasonable Intensity and replay gain.  As you work your way to 2004, they consistenly get more 'intense' and the replay gain magnitudes increase...  I noted that even 'best of' albums from bands in the 60s that were "remastered"  now have huge replay gains and peg the intensity meter at 5 for the most part.

Pretty sad when "remastered" means compressed into oblivion.

Props to Blue Note,  Higher Octave and others for maintaining good sound quality in spite of the trends!

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