The TRUTH about Youtube Loudness normalisation - We Tested!

[@whitenoisestudio]

The secret to perfect your audio mix for Tiktok - Demystified - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYjCioaFZpmXppI

[@AvetsBeatsOfficial]

I'm really surprised of the efficiency of this video 👌🏼 You explained it clear and very well 🙌🏼 Keep doing it, you deserve way more recognition 🙏🏼

[@whitenoisestudio]

Many thanks for watching! Sharing the video helps with the recognition ;-)

[@trollingprophet]

If you change your advanced settings in Spotify and take off normalization, it will not be limited to -14.

[@AlexeySolovievMusic]

Thank you so much for shoutout and mentioning my channel and for such a great video Marlon! You are super great friend. Much appreciation.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hey alexey, credit where credits due!!

[@mixphantom0101]

Quickest way to see how much KZbin has reduced your audio levels is to right click on the KZbin viewer and select "Stats for nerds" - Volume / Normalized 100%/81% (content loudness 1.8dB)... so, this video has been reduced by 1.8dB

[@whitenoisestudio]

True, thanks for pointing that out! That is one sure way to check after you uploaded to see if the stats in youtube fit with what you measure yourself. So a good check. To be sure you upload with a correct volume, check before by a/b other videos or measure the entire track recommended) By the time youtube has processed your track in all bitrates and resolutions and you've done your youtube optimizion you dont want to go back and have to reupload the video because your volume is too low ;-)

[@DavidnTenesha]

how to avoid it??? i hate when they reduce the volume... its ruining my whole music vibes

[@whitenoisestudio]

@@DavidnTenesha How can this ruin your experience? It's should improve it because you doesnt have to adjust volume the entire time.

[@empressthechildlike]

You did so much work to help us (making all those white/pink noise clips)! Thank you for all the tips!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thank you for your kind words! Happy to help :-)

[@Anders01]

Brilliant test! KZbin may modify their normalization algorithm at later dates but I guess it will remain more or less the same from now on.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Who knows! It’s been pretty much the same for a long time.

[@DarrenRayYagle]

Hello Marlon! I had to come check out yur channel. Glad I did because youtube audio is something I've been wondering about. Great editing by the way! Thank you for your kind words in the live chat too. Sub....scribed!!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hey Darren, awesome! Yeah was a nice going back and forth in the chat. Thanks again!

[@realhomestudioofficial]

Excellent Video, thank you Marlon, and really excellent quality voice recording, really great set up. Cheers!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Many thanks!

[@Illkacirma]

Thanks for doing this test! awesome!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thanks for watching Illya!

[@mackman6747]

Great video ! My clients wanna a extrem loud mastering and then : hey on youtube my songs are not loud enough. I explained that but nobody trust me 🤣

[@whitenoisestudio]

It's a struggle isnt it.

[@mackman6747]

@@whitenoisestudio yes 😅

[@GabrielCesarioOficial]

Amazing! another great video, its good to see how youtube normalization works and how to use this in my favor.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hey Gabriel! Had to think of your loudness when making this video ;-)

[@GabrielCesarioOficial]

@@whitenoisestudio Thank you a lot, i really apreciate the video and the way you answered clearly about loudness, you're a mixing giant man!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hi Gabriel, many many thanks for the kind words! Always here to help!

[@AturaxAudio]

Superb! Very useful video, thank you mate!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hey hey!!!! Thabks for watching man. Noise overkill hahaha

[@AturaxAudio]

@@whitenoisestudio loved it. Knew about the -14lufs from some website I read, but it is really great to have that confirmed by a trusted source! Cheers Marlon!!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Yeah --14 is pretty well known, i just wanted to make sure YT didnt boost softer sources and that silence is excluded from the average LUFS loudness.

[@Praxiszooms]

GREAT TEST. Thank you for your effort!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thank you too!

[@Zdravko7]

Awesome. Scientific, clear and to the point

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thanks man! That was the point , to get objective results. That's why I used noise for the tests instead of music :-)

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

this video is 1.8 dB louder than the intervention threshold of YT. Right click on the video > stats for nerds > you read the results.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Yup. I mixed this video ( all videos) a bit louder then the loudness standard to have it always correct by youtube normalisation. Which i tell in the video.

[@NasTimeAdventures]

Much of that went over my head to be honest but bottome line, I got my answer. Cheers for taking care of all the complex stuff for me.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Haha thanks, happy to see it answered your question ;-) Yeah need to show how i did it right? ''Loudness =-14lufs and the video only get decreased in loudness when it's louder then that -14lufs, if it's below -14lufs it wont get boosted in volume.'' That would have made a cute 10 second video.

[@NasTimeAdventures]

@@whitenoisestudio Out of interest, If that is chatting, then how loud would you have the music in the background? Or is that another video?

[@CreativeSauce]

Awesome video!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thanks Mike!!!!! It's all about the noise ;-)

[@JimDoge]

1. Why do they get normalized to 14.1 and 14.2 etc. instead of flat 14 lufs. Also how does the pink noise with some silence being normalized to 14.3 making it louder in a sneaky way? It just makes it even lower than 14 lufs.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hey Jay. 14.1 / 14.2 isn’t that much of a difference. Just make sure your audio is a tad louder before uploading. The silences do nothing, they are excluded in the LUFS measurements.

[@ekoyik3583]

Thank you so much, this video really helps!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hi! Thanks for the kind words! What were you looking for ?

[@CaptRod]

Outstanding job sir! Well done indeed!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Well do thank you for the kind words!

[@trollingprophet]

If you change your advanced settings in Spotify and take off normalization, it will not be limited to -14.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Correct, and also ruin your listening experience ;-)

[@trollingprophet]

@@whitenoisestudio I don't listen to streaming services so it makes no difference to me. I just wanted to know if I can still push my masters higher than -14.

[@whitenoisestudio]

you always can. You dont master for the loudness of a streaming service, the streaming service will normalize themselves. Master as loud as it's sounds good and fits the music, that's the only thing which counts.

[@HitWaveMusic]

@@whitenoisestudio I was up all night mixing and mastering this project for 10 hours. Span indicated an insane amount of phasing on the final master, but i didn't hear any of it, so I just left it as is. :D

[@whitenoisestudio]

@@HitWaveMusic yeah but do a mono check to be sure. Because it can sound good on headphones or stereo speakers but can collapse on mono playback.

[@siggevibes]

As I publish gaming videos from my stream on Twitch I can export these to KZbin directly which is super handy and if only the audio would also have been normalized up a bit that would have been so good. Oh, can't have it all.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Yeah KZbin only turns down, not up.

[@siggevibes]

@@whitenoisestudio Very informative video 👍

[@Blueye555]

Great and thx for your work!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thank you too!

[@danielkisel5661]

Great video thanks, I was wondering whether quieter audio gets turned up in volume, but as I can see it doesn't!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hey Daniel, yeah I wondered the same and now we can be sure :-)

[@trollingprophet]

If you change your advanced settings in Spotify and take off normalization, it will not be limited to -14.

[@ScottHiddelston]

Thanks!

[@whitenoisestudio]

And thank you!

[@MePeterNicholls]

It means no need for those brick wall loudness wars. The more dynamic your track the more it will pop

[@whitenoisestudio]

yeah it means you can focus on teh mix again instaed of ''louder is better''. Although having a dynamic mix per se doesnt equal great mix. Some styles really benefit from limiting and some absolutely dont :-)

[@MePeterNicholls]

@@whitenoisestudio yes agreed

[@PepoVidal]

Ooohhh!!! Impresionante vídeo!! Thanks

[@whitenoisestudio]

Many thanks for th ekind words! I hope it helped you :-)

[@danteyoutu]

But why is it that not every KZbin video is normalized down to -14? Some are at 10 or 9 LUFS. How did they achieve that?

[@whitenoisestudio]

Some slip through the cracks, but for basically most it is correct. Also if you right click on a video and select ''stats for nerds'' you can see how much each video has been normalized.

[@danteyoutu]

@@whitenoisestudio that’s the thing there are KZbin channels in which it says they were only normalized 0.4 or sometimes are-1.4 below but they sound loud and when analyzing them they are at 9 LUFS

[@vinylmastersgr1036]

When upload a song from a compact disc, I use tunes to tube and then when I download song from KZbin to test, is the same with original file 320kbps I have. Or it differs some 0.01 db, I use mp3gain to test but also in other programs loudness meter to test the LUFS.

[@PeterSpiers]

Hi mate, great video. But I've found that recently all videos I'm accessing - when signed into KZbin, they play back with DRC or Dynamic Range Compression and the sound is in fact being turned up if it is lower than -14LUFS. Have you experienced a similar thing?

[@whitenoisestudio]

No I haven’t noticed. I need to check again to see where yt is at right now. Thanks for pointing this out!

[@PeterSpiers]

@@whitenoisestudio Thanks so much for your response. I find it is when I right click a video and click 'stats for nerds' it shows the level of DRC applied. It makes the quieter sections of quieter videos much louder. Cheers dude.

[@dspoet1]

What about audio levels for Netflix & Feature Films?

[@whitenoisestudio]

Netflix: havent looked in their specs yet. Feature film is wild west, its still loudness war there.

[@codrutcroitoru]

Well, it is an interesting video and also an interesting thing all this "-14 lufs" stuff...But, for example, I once tried and did a special mastering for youtube, at -14 Lufs. When I uploaded it, it turned to be much quieter than almost anything on youtube. Are we sure that , for example, the big artists upload their songs at only -14 Lufs? For me it seems that most of them upload them much louder...

[@whitenoisestudio]

Hey man! Valid question. Was your Lufs measured over the entire track? Have you checked with right mouse click on that video - stats for nerds? It shows how much volume normalisation has been applied. For this video it says : Volume / Normalized : 100% / 85% (content loudness 1.4dB) Because my samples showed exactly how it get's reduced in volume when it's louder then -14Lufs and I made sure the measurements where 100% correct. At the end of the video I say I always aim a bit louder to be safe, since youtube always turns it down anyway. Music for youtube shouldn't be mastered at -14Lufs unless the music asks for it. Make it as loud as you feel sounds fitting for the music, again youtube will turn it down when it's too loud. If you want to check how a master sounds on youtube, through the compression codec, check this video here below: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGTSaHaJlt2rga8

[@codrutcroitoru]

@@whitenoisestudio Tjank you for your answer. I will try to do as you said!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Awesome! Let me know how it worked out!

[@TheTMR2011]

Great info

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thank you for watching!

[@teortega93]

0.0 dB (KZbin content loudness) = 94 dB approx in real life. Or am I wrong?

[@whitenoisestudio]

KZbin = -14lufs. Also reallife volume 100% depends on how loud you set your own speakers, amp, the power of those devices and much more.

[@RenkieTanki]

Thanks!

[@whitenoisestudio]

Thank you for watching!

[@cerulean-crystal]

Thanks for the video, isnt there the factor True max peak ? I always keep it under -2. But thats only because I heard that in a tutorial.

[@whitenoisestudio]

True max peak? Dont know. but it's always wise to keep your peak below 0dB regardless. When was that tutorial released?Yyoutube changed the loudness to LUFS in somewhere in the second half of 2019. So any info regarding loudness before that date can be considered invalid or outdated or need to be double or triple checked.

[@cerulean-crystal]

@@whitenoisestudio check this graph : www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/76296773-mastering-audio-for-soundcloud-itunes-spotify-and-youtube Its a hassle to find youtube's own official guidelines. But here is spotify's one, as reference: artists.spotify.com/faq/mastering-and-loudness#will-spotify-play-my-track-at-the-level-it's-mastered

[@Stinktierchen]

Yeah... I wondered if youtube does that. If its true what you say.. then why the HELL doesnt youtube keep the same loudness for commercials? It is super annoying to get my ears busted when suddenly some loud commercial begins in the middle of a video what I watch on my TV with the audio system activated. I always thought to myself.. why cannot youtube control the audio level so it doesnt blow your eardrums... all their fancy AI they got to delete comments that arent even insulting but controling audio and keep a constant level is obviosuly not desired.

[@whitenoisestudio]

System is not perfect I agree. BUT it works always for me. Also, YT doesnt delete comments, it's the settings on each channel to hide certain words from popping up. I have a big list to block spam bots accounts and unfortunately sometimes normal comments also get put in ''comment jail'' that's why I go in those held for review comments and check. That's how your comment popped up as well ;-)

[@Stinktierchen]

@@whitenoisestudio Regarding the "hide certain words" I am sure some comments dissapear because of "forbidden" words. But I can guarantee you, without any doubt that youtube uses a very clever and advanced AI to scan comments for "insulting words" and in general for a negative attitude. And it doesnt even do that within a language alone like English OR German, it even scans it in a multinlingual context not words alone in different languages at the same time. I had many comments deleted where I dont even insult a person directly, but indirectly with very abstract words and it still gets the idea of me being negative. I also speak Russian and lately it is even able to understand the Russian language with latin letters! The only way I was able to beat the system is using different letters from different alphabets where the letter looks similar but has a different meaning. And that damn thing learns every time. since the time I recognized its ability it gets much better and more clever day by day. I am just sure of one thing. Our lives wont be sweet in the very near future. Where everything we do say will be controlled AND punished. mark my words.

[@HowslyOfficial]

Great info. I'm curious if anyone knows this, would youtube turn down -6 lufs more than -10 lufs? do they all get set to -14? For example -6 becomes -15 and -10 would be -14.

[@whitenoisestudio]

everything gets normalized to that -14 lufs. So yeah, -6 gets turned down more then -10.

[@HowslyOfficial]

@@whitenoisestudio Yes -6 naturally has to be turned down more to reach -14. My question was would -6 get turned down to -15 or -14.5. Referring to music specifically, because I noticed when I upload music mastered to -5 it sounds quieter than another track that was mastered to -7 lufs.

[@natanunorthodox]

So if I have a song that is hitting at a max of -6 db, they will turn it down to -14 db? And if I turn the max level down to -14 or -12 db, it will turn it up to 0 - -6db? Please, I don't quite understand?...SBN RESONATE

[@whitenoisestudio]

KZbin will only turn down your track if it's too loud. It wil normalize to -14lufs if your audio is louder than that. KZbin will never turn up the volume of the audio, only down. And: you need to measure in LUFS, not RMS.

[@BatEatsMoth]

If you don't understand LUFS, just normalize everything to -3 db. I did an online test to see if stuff normalized to -3 can play on KZbin without them normalizing it, and it works just fine. That's as loud as you can get it without them squashing it. A lot of people do -5 or -6 for vlogs, but that's not really necessary. You only need to go that low if you're prepping music files for a mixing engineer. You want to go as loud as you can without ebay normalizing things because if you're too far below their threshold, it's going to sound quiet on here and people will have to crank the volume to hear it. They don't normalize quiet tracks up to -14lufs; they just squash everything that comes in louder than that. That's why there is still so much variance in video volume.

[@whitenoisestudio]

@@BatEatsMoth KZbin never squashes things. Main issue with your method is that it does not take in account any loudness. Normalising to -3dB doesn’t say anything, if your overall loudness is below the -14lufs threshold, even with the -3dB normalising, your video will sound less loud, minus a few peaks. My videos are normalised to -0,5 dB will is safe enough for some intermittent peaks if they are there. My videos are overall louder than -14lufs so YT will turn them all down, and I take that into account.

[@seancarruthers237]

I'd be curious to figure out if KZbin compresses the audio in order to bring it down (whenever the video is above -14 lufs) or if they just bring it down like a master fader. Sean Divine talks about how there is a pretty common misconception on Spotify where people will say Spotify compresses the audio that's above -14lufs, but they really just turn it down. The dynamics and tonal balance of the song remains the same even if you go above -14lufs. I wonder if that's the same with KZbin.

[@whitenoisestudio]

It’s normalised. So that means volume I.e level only. No compression. TikTok on the other hand does apply a form of compression/ limiting.

[@seancarruthers237]

@@whitenoisestudio Awesome, I appreciate the quick response! Thank you!

[@HDSTUDIOSp2]

And we are watching tutorial on youtube....wowwww....and howwww

[@whitenoisestudio]

Woop!

[@stargazer7644]

Right click, stats for nerds, gives you some stats about the owdio.

[@whitenoisestudio]

absolutely. it's also nice to understand how exactly the reduction happens.

[@EnchantedSmellyWolf]

I can see why not much people these days are posting video due to volume issue. I mean let's be honest. Not much will buy these applications to fix the issue and I'm talking about people in general that would post daily.

[@whitenoisestudio]

😕

[@danielwetzel7777]

Can a user turn it off like Spotify

[@whitenoisestudio]

Why do you want that?

[@whitenoisestudio]

@Mark Gerry Well maybe. Intentionally brickwalled is about sound not about actual loudness although a factor as well. In regards of sound , lufs normalisation wont change that. Just export as you normally would. I mastered noise tracks where loudness was+6lufs. Yes that +. Didnt even know it was possible, but it was was requested. A nice distorting clipper will work as well.

[@lemniscatusofficial]

I extracted sound from an archspire song and it got me at -6LUFS... I'm still puzzled how. But it is loud af

[@whitenoisestudio]

-6lufs is really loud, but not impossible. I once had to do a hardstyle / noise master where the reference was +3lufs, i.e extremely clipped.

[@lemniscatusofficial]

@@whitenoisestudio no, I'm talking audio taken from the KZbin video was at -6LUFS... I don't know how they were able to cross the -14 limit

[@whitenoisestudio]

Ok, but is it really loude on YT as well? because when you mix with -6lufs as result, that dynamic range wont change in itself. It is lowered with 8dB. So i dont know if you added normalisation or that it was a lot louder on YT already.

[@lemniscatusofficial]

@@whitenoisestudio their video itself is way too loud to be -14lufs... getting such loudness with us Nirmal content creators seems impossible. Either there is some magic in their mix or they get special rights as production studios to upload without normalization.

[@Junior1385]

When i hear music from youtube on headphones even if i turned the volume on 100% only i hear if where on 40% or 30% and i canot turn up more the volume is very low for me

[@whitenoisestudio]

Check if the same happens on spotify. If yes, your headphone amp cannot drive your headphones enough.

[@Junior1385]

@@whitenoisestudio on spotify and facebook i hear better like the volume is full, when i desactivate "the Normalizer" of spotify i hear the music more louder an better

[@whitenoisestudio]

You just confirmed that whatever you use to plugin your headphones cant power your headphones enough.

[@Junior1385]

@@whitenoisestudiomy earphones are pasive, cables just one mic, but the more the power more loud sound the speaker, but if you turn up more the signal if the power its little low its not te same sound, but if the signal its low and the power its enough good thats would be the problem for me on example like KZbin some times normalize an audio turning down to 40% 30% 8-dB or 6-dB but when i hear it before its upload on youtube its full good volume and after normalize thats happen turning down the gain.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Well yeah, that is what normalizing does. When you check before uploading that normalizing isnt happening of course. If it's 6 to 8db reduction it means you have the audio at -8 or -6 Lufs before the normalization of youtube ( -14lufs) which is REALLY loud. So i suggest checking your headphones impedance, you have a mismatch in what your headphones need and what your headphone on soundcard or phone or whatever can deliver.

[@monzr93]

What is weird is that I downloaded this video and it read -12 lufs

[@whitenoisestudio]

what does right click in the YT video say?

[@monzr93]

@@whitenoisestudio It says content loudness 1.8 db, which I assume is the amount of reduction that was applied?

[@whitenoisestudio]

@@monzr93 Exactly, which makes YT -14Lufs. The video itself is indeed a bit louder , like i suggest.

[@TheDeadsideofYouTube]

KZbin keeps lowering my damn voice to like -12 DBs. I moved up the DBs a further 3 and then it was -9. Have I got to keep making it higher to get it closer to the 0 and be louder? Any advice would be appreciated as it's stressing me out.

[@whitenoisestudio]

That's the normalisation kicking in, follow teh tips i give in this video to have it sound good at the -14lufs level.

[@TheDeadsideofYouTube]

@@whitenoisestudio yeah I just found it in audacity and it helped tremendously. I appreciate it dude.

[@DanWorksTV]

LUFS what is that? you made that up?

[@whitenoisestudio]

Loudness units relative to full scale (LUFS) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBU_R_128

[@DanWorksTV]

thanks for the link. so it corresponds to 1db digitally.

[@whitenoisestudio]

No. Lufs measures the average loudness of an audio file of its entire length. This results in a number in LUFS which is the standard for loudness in all streaming platforms and broadcast for a few years now.

[@jonathansoko1085]

SAY NO TO LUFS, SAY NO TO MODERN LOUDNESS! iF you respect the art of producing music, then fight back, stop ruining your own creations by making them so loud. In 100 years when people are listening to music from our era, they are going to vomit.

[@whitenoisestudio]

Euh. LUFS is just an measurement tool. The -14LUFS is a pretty good loudness . Apple is doing -16 soon. Mix with your ears to make the mix sound good and dont get too upset with how loud it measures.

[@PeterSpiers]

What is frustrating is the lack of info from KZbin themselves. Also when I'm not signed into KZbin, but I play videos on KZbin, videos play back at their normal volume, but when I am signed in they have DRC added under 'stats for nerds' which changes the loudness level dramatically and really ruins some more delicate mixes.

[@GamingNostalgiaRemastered]

Can anyone give me some luvs?

[@whitenoisestudio]

No but LUFS is possible ;-)

[@CounterNull]

нихрена не понял

[@CounterNull]

переведите субтитры

[@whitenoisestudio]

I will add googletranslated russian for you soon .

[@CounterNull]

@@whitenoisestudio о нет только не гугл! я знаю он переведет так что хуже будет чем на ютубе автоматические

[@whitenoisestudio]

@@CounterNull We'll see ;-) I think they use the same algorithm.