Turn It Up!!!

As they say if it's too loud you're too old. But how loud is loud? Funny you should ask because there are many schools of thought on this subject.

Metering

There are many terms and concepts we need to understand before we can move forward. Here is an awesome video explaining everything we need to know.

(Divine, 2018)

Normalising

In all media platforms the user experience is key. Have you ever watched TV and felt the ads were too loud and you had to turn them down? Well if you followed through and turned the ads down you were normalising the audio experience. This is not what the broadcaster intended thats why we have developed standards which I will go into a little later in this post. To combat fluctuations in perceived loudness media providers normalise track to a set standard. Simply put if your audio is too loud their normalisation algorithm will turn your audio down. On the other side if your audio is too soft they will increase your volume to achieve a consistent volume from track to track.

For any audio creator you want your audience to experience your mix exactly the same way you do in the studio. As normalisation uses compression and limiting to achieve its results if your audio is turned up or down this will colour the mix and the end users experience. To allow audio creators to avoid any normalisation of their audio, platforms, governments and industries have created standards which allow you to create content that will adhere to their algorithm and let your audience hear what you here.

Standards

Now that we understand the terminology and how these are metered as well as what normalisation does we can now explore what that means for the modern audio professional. I've found this very hand chart that outlines the current loudness standards for the following platforms and mediums

(Mastering The Mix, 2018)

But what does all this mean?

Let's take a closer look at the YouTube standard. It has a true peak of -1db which means at no point throughout the entire pice can any audio sample peak over -1dB or it will be turned down to compensate. The loundess target of -13 to -15 LUFS means that the average loudness measured in Loudness Units Full Scale should be between these two values to avoid normalisation. The >9DR targets means there should be more than 9dB of dynamic range so the loudest part of the track and the quietest part of the track should be separated by more than 9dB. For example if the loudest part of my track is -12dB and the quietest part is -28dB then the whole track has a dynamic range of 28-12= 18dB which is greater than 9 and would adhere to YouTubes algorithm.

Now that you know you can make sure your creations sound just the way you intended them to on any platform.

References

Divine, S. (2018, April 17). Levels and Loudness Metering (RMS, LUFS and True Peak) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myTcnK1lRUA

Mastering The Mix. (2018). Song mastering for CD, Club Play and Streaming. Retrieved from https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/song-mastering-for-cd-club-play-and-streaming