“U wanna hear the raw files”: Producer Mike Dean tells streamers to switch off auto levelling on every music platform, and hear the music as it was meant to be heard

Mike dean.

Hip hop and megastar record producer and synth wizard Mike Dean has implored followers across his social platforms to ditch the auto levelling or loudness normalisation on all music streaming services and listen to the music how it was meant to be heard. Sensible advice? Common sense? Or a one-way ticket to over-stressed ears and monitors?

The record producer and audio engineer has worked with a vast number of superstar names including Beyoncé, The Weeknd, Lana Del Ray, Drake, Madonna, and Jay-Z – not to mention being both the guitarist and keyboardist for Kanye West and Travis Scott – so knows a thing or two about how to produce, play, and indeed listen to music.