LUFS or LUKS (Loudness measurement that takes into account the psychoacoustic nature of apparent/perceived loudness): Long Term/Integrated Loudness = Average loudness measurement calculated over the whole length of an audio event Short Term Loudness = Loudness measurement calculated over a 3 s (seconds) time frame of an audio event Momentary Loudness = Loudness measurement calculated over a 400 ms (milliseconds) time frame an audio event ••• Integrated Loudness "sweet spot" at Master Output (LUFS) ••• Between - 16 dbFS (minus 16 dbFS) and - 10 dbFS (minus 10 dbFS) depending on musical style or genre being mastered Mastering = Audio Normalization Audio Normalization is the application of a constant amount of gain to an audio recording in order to bring its amplitude to a set target level. As the same amount of gain is applied across the entire audio recording, its signal-to-noise ratio and relative dynamics will remain unchanged/unaltered
Sean Divine is a really blessed guy, this guy made some game change on my music in term of Mix and Mastering and all other knowledge. Thanks to waves too for making this happen, help us to reach our goal, making some beautiful plugins :) This is a win-win situation ☺👊☺
Great video sean, After analyzing various songs that sound on the radio and award winners as well, I realized that they are all between -7 to -8. although sometimes there are clients who give me references from -15 to -16.
Thanks for posting Sean and very useful video given the technicalities of mixing & mastering for streaming audio. It's important to remember though, LUFS is an AVERAGE measurement across the whole track. So if a lot of your track is quiet and then has one or 2 loud sections the LUFS is not going to be indicative of the whole track. Just something to bear in mind.
WLM is a great reference tool! We use it during our church live service broadcast. Because LUFS is measured over the whole broadcast, I can run hotter signals during worship without getting 'penalized' by platforms...we typically run around -12 LUFS for worship, and around -18 for the Lav mics/message. This has produced good results for us.
Thank you!! This literally has helped A LOT! I usually just open the plug in and watch the long term there. Didn’t know you can tweak and change all the other things 🤣🤦♂️
When I check any reference mix from RU-vid/Apple/Spotify most pop top 40 music runs around 7-8 LUFS! why would we want to mix ours to -14?! Am I missing something?
@@Tedbearbeats well, they actually do this. this one is for spotify: "We currently use ReplayGain, which was the most recognized standard for calculating loudness when Spotify first started. In the future, we plan to use a new standard for calculating loudness, called ITU 1770 (from the International Telecommunication Union). This defines the integrated LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) measure, and it’s what we recommend you use to measure the loudness of your tracks. ReplayGain doesn’t specify a measurement unit for loudness, so we’re unable to give an exact measure in LUFS used by ITTU 1770. However, we adjust tracks to 3 dB higher than ReplayGain algorithm specifies, which is roughly equivalent to -14 dB LUFS, according to the ITU 1770 standard."
most clients still prefer an energetic, loud-sounding mix and don't notIce that the streaming services turn it down a few dB to hit LUFS targets. Experienced engineers do whatever sounds best for the music and generally don't let the LUFS meter guide their mastering decisions.
I always find a video like this helps explain it better to me than reading the manual which I tried. So would you use this as your main limiter or have this following a dedicated limiter like Pro-L or Ozone?
To be clear you are testing this plugin on a MASTERED TRACK? Also when I use it I get a RED NEGATIVE NUMBER in the short term box on the left around -16. This is a track I mastered on Landr. Please advise.
wow just saw my own comment 1 year later haha now i actually am mastering and im still getting the hang of it but kind of enjoying it mostly now.. maybe in another year ill be good!
I noticed in the beginning before you inserted your image, the meter in the upper right of your DAW was peaking in the red. Isn.t that not good for exporting?
Hey Sean I have a question so I have waves VU meter in stereo and the WLM plus after it.. on the VU meter on top it has headroom and it goes from 4-26 is that -4 to -26 db from 0 .. that it just pulls down the signal?
Hijack SONAR it depends on the standard you’re delivering and where / how it’s being broadcast. There’s actually a lot of useful presets included that cover a lot of different standards to choose from
Great video! Question regarding true peak. My target lufs is -14. Should I try to get as close as I can to -1 or is that irrelevant if I’m at say -3.5 with and lufs of -14? In other words should I boost the input to get as close to a true peak of -1 and then adjust the limiter to obtain -14 lufs? Thanks!
Yes always be at -1 db true peak, if you are lower than that like -3.5 than your track is just going to be more quiet. So just put the Output of your true peak limiter or wlm plus to -1 and than push it till you reach your desiered lufs and -1 db true peak, just be sure that its never going above the -1. Also if you want your track louder depending on the genre you can go over -14 lufs, i always try to get my master to around -9 lufs.
@@stillgotyourmom I dont think there is any quali loss when you leave it on, its just a metering plugin with build in limiter. If I use the true peak limiter I leave it on of course, if Im not using it I turn it of but it shouldnt make any difference.
on Apple -16 Lufs is on with their soundcheck right? But sound check is not set by default. It seems like i hear a lot of much that is louder than -16 Lufts. Confused
At this point, it’s a standard not a requirement. The confusion comes as many think the standard is set to make everything quieter but it’s actually to create a consistent listening experience when the normalization / sound check options are enabled
*Sean Divine* , regarding all the other (non-Spotify) services like Apple Music, RU-vid, Pandora and more, who's standard is -16 LUFS, what will those services do to our -14 LUFS master on their services?
@@danielpicard3994 thank you. So then doesn't it make more sense to target -16. Spotify would only raise the noise floor, but at least all of the music would still be heard fully. Or does it depend on genre and other factors?
Steven Cravis if the listener has loudness “normalization” options enabled, it will simply adjust all music to the standard. So your track would be simply be turned down to match.
I reached the long term target loudness of -14 LUFS using WLM meter. However I had a large number of overs, my question is will it clip at the overs, or am I ready to upload to Spotify or You Tube?
how to get nice wide Loud master after mixing. When I master Im at 10rms luf at -14 when play back finish touch sound Low like it ain't full. Another thing I notice is when you listen to spotify play professional songs it seems spotify got people songs alil too compress or limiter. I think they should bumb it up at -15 luf I say that's the sweet spot. Were apple is -16 luv and everything is more open more dynamic too
Mainstream songs final LUFS is around -9. Streaming services say -14 but itll be low. Just try and get it as loud as -9 and if the mix is good itll sound full and competitive to mainstream songs.
@@jmizzbeatsj-jigga7888 takes alot for loudness bro. Theres no easy fix and im not even close to there yet lol. But theres shit about percieved loudness and all that which is confusing but very true. On my master bus, say I add OneBrighter plugin from Waves and turn it up a couple notches.. it adds like 1 or 2 LUFS. Saturation as well. Limiter wont be the only thing to make it loud and full.
Hi there...enjoy most of your vids although we work in different Genre's. I have this plugin and have liked it most of the time. However, today in mixing one of my own songs, in the chorus, the "short term" box started blinking a "RED" number, like I see behind you in the photo that comes up on your own screen. That is uncommon in my mixing, and am wondering what that's about, as you really didn't explain why that would occur. I've started weaning myself away from WAVES and won't buy any more of their plugins, as they can't spell "customer service" let alone care about customers like me, who has probably SIXTY of their plugins. I have a couple ADPTR similar plugins I like, i.e. their Metric A/B, Streamliner and Sculpt. I use WLM in both mixing and mastering, along with the ADPTR's. I agree with you, at -1.0 True peak, but for mixing, I keep mine at -18, and then in Studio One's Project Pg, where I do my mastering, I set those at -14, since I use some enhancement plugin chain in mastering. THANKS....I'd be interested in any comments about those blinking RED numbers in the short term box.
That just means your short term LUFS is peaking. You can try compressing some elements more in your mix to avoid the peak. I don't know what was your experience with Waves Tech support but they have been wonderful every time I called them.
If 14 LUFS is the loudness standard for RU-vid, then why when Right Clicking this video to look at "Stats for nerds" Volume/Normalized Value when the volume slider at 100% it says that youtube is reducing the audio gain from this video by -6.3dB?????????
@@blvkqmusicgroup i know. that's why i'm asking. since if 14 lufs is the loudness standard for youtube and this video is set to 14 lufs, then the number should says roughly around 0 DB, right? because the -6.3db in the "stats for nerds" means RU-vid turned down the volume of original audio of the uploaded video by -6.3db to compensate the original loudness. so when people set the volume slider in the youtube video player to max 100%, that 100% is equal to the -6.3db of the original volume. which means, the loudness of this video before uploaded to youtube is more than 14 lufs. that's the opposite with what the video shows. the video shows that the audio was set to 14 lufs. but now we know that the video is actually not 14 db because RU-vid algorithm still decide to reduce it's volume by -6.3db, when if youtube loudness standard is 14lufs, the algorithm shouldn't reduce the volume to match the loudness to 14 lufs, and by that the stats should says roughly around 0db. and to be clear, youtube algorithm is not doing any compression to the dynamic of the audio, it simply just like turning down the fader. and also it only does reduction which means video with quieter loudness won't be compensated by increasing its volume. it only decreasing volume of video with louder audio. i hope you get what i mean
If you want your track to sound as loud as pro tracks u do not want to aim for anything lower than -8 rms. Its has a sound. If you aim for -14 - -16 lufs it will not sound as loud and compressed as a track done to -8 rms and then lowered to -14lufs
I was just going ask him how to get nice wide Loud master after mixing. When I master Im at 10rms luf at -14 when play back finish touch sound Low like it ain't full. Another thing I notice is when you listen to spotify play professional songs it seems spotify got people songs alil too compress or limiter. I think they should bumb it up at -15 luf I say that's the sweet spot. Were apple is -16 luv and everything is more open more dynamic too
Please answer my question. I have done everything now just tell me do i have to export my master with the wlm plug in on. or I have switch off every time I export my session
No difference unless any desired limiting / filtering / leveling is engaged from THIS plugin. If you use this only for metering, then there is no use of engaging this because what it all say is something you've done already, which isn't altered even if you bypass this.
I have an issue: at -14 lufs I’m still 2 dB shy of hitting the -1db true peak and triggering the limiter. I don’t think I’m over compressing/limiting my mix. Whass going on?
Not hitting the limiter isn't necessarily a bad thing. It does bring into question if you are over compressing though. If your content is something that does not have a lot of short loud transients (i.e. drums claps etc.) then you might not hit or need the limiter.
Gostaria de tirar uma dúvida, fiz como vc recomendou no vídeo com os -14 lufs só que quando coloco no site: Loudness penalty, (site que mede a quantidade de lufs por cada plataforma) a plataforma indica que vou ser penalisado com -7 db em média, se insisto em baixar os lufs no plugim WLM até chegar num nível de não ser penalisado pelas plataformas percebo que o volume de minha música, em relação as músicas das plataformas, fica muito baixa, isso é normal???
Sorry, but your definition/explanation of the Loudness Range @2:10 is wrong. It has nothing to do with the loudest and quieter point (as you stated), it is based on the lowest and highest measured loudness in your program. EBU Tech 3341: "The computation of Loudness Range is based on a measurement of loudness level, as specified in ITU-R BS.1770. "
Hey thanks a lot for the video! I'm currently mastering a track for spotify right now and on my Waves WLM im hitting -18 LUFS overall and -17 max. If I use the built in limiter in the WLM plugin and boost about 4.0 db or so with the true peak limiter set to -1.0 to hit -14 LUFS consistently, will spotify then "ruin" my track dynamics when I upload it to them since I'd be going over -14 LUFS at some points in the song due to the 4.0 boost or would the limiter being set to -1.0 be enough to prevent spotify touching the track too much? I appreciate the advice! - Don
Thanks yet I'm a bit confused, I set my standards the same is you for spotify, -14 and -1 etc and all the other details you laid out. And I adjusted my true peak yet my song was at -17
Qual a quantidade de lufs que eu aplique na minha master que minha música fique boa em todas as plataformas digitais Sem eu ta masterizando minha música para cada plataforma digital
Yep, far too quiet. Master at -9 to -6 LUFS. Use reference tracks and meter them to see how loud they are, then level match. Qobuz.com is great place to purchase reference tracks.
Hey guys I'm pretty much putting the same settings and doing everything the same but I can't manage to get a lufs long term reading of -14 anyone know the problem? Even when playing with the gain
This is very basic stuff. The more involved question would be: given that you hit -14 LUFS on this video (I can see this in "stats for nerds"), what were your dialogue LUFS and music LUFS that then resulted in this average? It sounds like the music is at least +3 dB over the narrative. So perhaps -16 LUFS for dialogue and -12 LUFS for music gave you the -14 LUFS average?
Does anybody know that if you already used one limiter one the track (hitting -14 LUFS) but the true peak limiter is -0.6 with the true peak being -DB? Is that good or do I still need to adjust the true peak limiter towards -1?
