I’ve never really been sure why ‘C’ weighting isn’t more commonly used for SPL measurement – it’s certainly more suitable for the types of SPL found in typical listening environments.

So what’s the conclusion then? That the vocal is louder on the second track? It’s certainly a lot less compressed.

@General Lighting 702384 wrote:

peak levels are a lot louder on female voices even after considering different production techniques of 1970s NL and 1980s UK (1980s era Schlager is of less interest to me as it was more often sung in English or French even if the singers were from other European countries – by that time I’d heard plenty enough of it (you had to listen to it in French at my high school)).

I’ve noticed the same on some VOIP equipment – earlier IP phones and analogue terminal adapters need the sound level to be set correctly otherwise a clipped 8-bit signal gets sent through various DSP at the other end to remove echo, noise, and then put noise back in – that either sounds rough, causes the acoustic shock protection circuits at the telephone set to activate (which goes silent) or gets sent down the line as DTMF tones.

Newer kit is better at automatically setting levels; especially when designed in a smaller North European country and built (and therefore also used) in a SE Asian nation where the middle classes (in spite of whatever their dominant culture or religions might claim) have a matriarchal society. That is not just a coincidence….. 😉

I’ve noticed that it’s more socially the norm for female vocalists to really test their range of vocal frequencies, where as male vocalists on the whole tend to side on the “sounding cool” area of singing, hence sticking to one or two octaves, maybe three at most (unless they are a proper skilled singer), and with the relative lack of pitch variation, there’s going to be less likelihood of DB spikes due to spectral dynamic fluctuations,even after being passed through a compressor.

However, I think it’s more likely to do with the frequency range male and female vocals fall into. Female vocals are inherently higher pitched then males, and you can get away with compressing higher frequencies (to a certain point) a bit more then lower ones, without totally wrecking the waveform, and in modern day pop music, where they can compress, they will.