Magic Master 3.14: Livelier Sound, Breath Control, AI Advice

Release 3.14 is about livelier sound and honest hints. We re-measured where
mastering squeezed a track harder than needed and where hints said generic
things instead of useful ones. Almost everything here was checked on real tracks,
not synthetic test tones.

Livelier at streaming loudness

Multiband protection holds the loud passages of each band so the final limiter
does not distort. Its threshold used to be one table value for every track, which
over-squeezed dynamic music at moderate targets.

• The threshold now comes from the track itself — from its loud passages, with headroom.
• Where it applies: at targets of −13 LUFS and quieter: Spotify, Apple Music,
  YouTube, podcasts.
• What we measured: 12 tracks in 8 genres with their real targets. At −13…−16
  LUFS loudness range grew by 0.7–1 LU, and no track missed its loudness.
• Loud targets are unchanged. At −9 for EDM and −11 for rock a track is best
  held by multiband protection, so nothing changes there.

Breath control

A new treatment for voice. Loud breaths between phrases are brought down to a
natural level, the way studio tools like RX do it. Breaths are not cut out:
silence instead of breathing sounds unnatural. Words and sibilants are untouched.
Turn it on in the restoration settings.

AI advice for your track

The genre hint and the AI advice are one block now. The advice is based on what
is measured in the file: loudness, dynamics, spectrum. If a track is already loud
and dense, the advice says so instead of suggesting −9.

Gentler AI-trace cleanup

• Pitch is adjusted only when needed. If the spectrum shows no generator
  "comb" pattern, pitch is not changed at all.
• After mastering you can clean the same track right away. If you have not
  tried cleanup yet, the app offers it below the result. With an account no token
  is charged.

Small things

• Already Loud recovers loudness into free peak headroom after yielding the target.
• Song or speech? — a hint when a song is mastered with a speech preset.
• Another format right at the result — MP3 or FLAC without mastering again.
• Free runs left are shown in advance, not only when they run out.
• Restoration: the page now has a real before-and-after example.

What's next

We are watching feedback on the new sound at streaming loudness. If a track does
not sound the way you expected, give it a thumbs down below the result and tell
us briefly why — we read every one.