Why -14 LUFS Doesn't Work - And What To Do Instead

[@mixinglessons]

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[@j.o.n.i.h]

When someone listen to your -14db lufs song without volume equalization it's going to be a lot quieter than pro records. The loudness is in the mix. When you get better at balancing your mix you notice that it's easy to get etc -7db lufa loudness. This has been the biggest struggle for me personally for so long.

[@johnfields656]

Hello... Good explanation but I noticed something on your video and your studio setup . You own a pair of Alesis active monitors (I have the same ones), but the manufacturer recommends to install them with the tweeters towards the center (vertical or horizontal) !

[@mixinglessons]

Hey, yes, you're quite right! I'm going to be making some changes to this room in the coming weeks, putting the speakers on stands and adding acoustic treatment, so that I can get things set up more optimally. Thanks for your comment! 🙂

[@kadiummusic]

While pop music is still dominated by sample and loop based rap and hip-hop it really doesn't matter if it's squashed to death or not. If however we ever get back to producing organic HAI (Human Artistic Intelligence) style music dynamics will again become important to the art. 😎

[@mixinglessons]

Thank you for your comment. Different genres definitely require different approaches to loudness and dynamics.

[@MrPaul8870]

Yes it does matter some people have a passion for producing great music but if you. The last 20 years music is so ecessable to the general public that most don't know the right conception. Here is a great example listen to early psi trance 89-92 Anything past 93 the general public could buy in software Now we have a new generation making up stupid words to explain basic simple things thats been there on a basic recording device showing peak levels . Listen to some artificial intelligence on warp records and you will see to that it's way better than infected mushroom stick doing the same mixing 1997 songs By gms just this week on platforms. That's how bad music has got Lmfao

[@Tyrell_Corp2019]

This whole thing over LUFS and streaming is becoming maddening. Do it. Don’t do it. Do it. Dont. I don’t know. Aren’t most professional albums at -9 LUFS on average? And they sound perfectly fine on streaming services. And then there is ambient music by some of the forefathers like Brian Eno who can be as low as -23 LUFS. And then there is classical which needs lots of headroom and quiet space.

[@EdwinDekker71]

The whole point of using loudness units is to stop fussing about loudness. I just master so it sounds good, usually around -12 lufs or so, and don't worry about it. Also my ears prefer dynamics, not loudness. If I want to listen loudly I'll just turn up the volume.

[@mixinglessons]

@houdinididiit Thank you for your comment. 🙂 I agree, the amount of contradictory information is frustrating. That's why I wanted to make a video to try and bring about some clarity. The research by Eelco Grimm, in which he analysed the loudness of 4.2 million albums, found the median of the loudest tracks to be -9 LUFS, whilst the average track loudness of all albums had a median of -12 LUFS, and the median of the softest tracks was -14 LUFS. And as you say, wide dynamic range is critical is certain genres. As such, you simply can't master everything to measure a certain LUFS value.

[@mixinglessons]

@EdwinDekker71 Makes complete sense!

[@barneyrubble8255]

How come i can't save this video in my youtube where i save videos i want to come back to?

[@mixinglessons]

I'm afraid, I'm not sure. I can see the option to save at my end. And I don't have anything in the settings that should prevent this. 🤔

[@Durkhead]

If you want your song loud as phuck set your bass freq and then limit only the freq above around 500hz to 800hz youll get a lot of loudness without that pumping effect

[@Durkhead]

As loud as you can without compromizing sound quality

[@mixinglessons]

Thank you for your comment. This is definitely the approach in many genres.

[@moontan91]

i think -14 LUFS is too loud for certain types of music Apple Music standard is -16 LUFS, which i like even more. personally, i never go above -13.5 LUFS. don't forget that you have a .5 LU of leeway, so it's actually between -13.5 and -14.5 LUFS. anyway, i'd rather have people turn up the volume a little than turning it down because it's too loud to start with. that was a good primer, thanks for sharing.

[@snubdawg1386]

fuck loudness war ...but at the same time i skip a track when i can't hear it loud enough on my phone through headphones on daily basis

[@mixinglessons]

@moontan91 -14 LUFS is definitely too loud for some genres. And then not enough for others. It all depends on the kind of music people make. ☺️ And -16 LUFS definitely makes the most sense to me as a distribution level. Thank you for sharing your approach!

[@Geirkraakenes]

Don’t know if thats a good advice… In my mind you are more safe that platforms do not ruin/destroy your «art» if it is within the specs. If the music meets the specs, they wont change anything, and it will sound the way you intended. (hopefully…😬😬) Any kind of «normalization» on weak signals migth increase noise… I prefer adjusting gain, if necesseary, rather than using normalisation.

[@mixinglessons]

Thanks for your comment. I think the idea that streaming platforms ruin or destroy music is a misconception. They simply turn it down if it's louder than a certain level so that it plays back at the same level as everything else on the platform. So I'd rather make music sound the best that it can, regardless of the LUFS measurement. Then, if the level where the music sounds its best happens to be above a platform's distribution level, they will simply turn it down. 🙂

[@Nov.47]

Platforms don’t change anything about your files other than converting it to their own format. They do not process your audio in any way. Also “normalization” IS gain change. That’s all it is.

[@Geirkraakenes]

@@Nov.47I think you might not understand this fact. Gain is applied at the beginning of the signal-path of each track in a mix. And it should be set to somewhere between -18 to -10 dB at the loudest part for each track, with the faders at 0. This is essential for the plugins to work properly. Volume is placed last in the signal-path of each track, and master-track. In my experience Normalizing affects the overall volume, and not the gain, on each track. That’s why it should be used with care, cause it will alter the signal/noise ratio. And this is specially noticeable on tracks with low dynamic levels. You may end up with a real bad signal/noise ratio on these tracks. That’s why I prefer to adjust the gain properly at the start. I can then lover the track-volume for balancing the mix instead, and put a limiter on a «Pre-master track» to get the desireable Integrated-LUFS reading. Then I’m more confident that my mixes wont be ruined and squeeced by any AI-shit processing of the various platforms.

[@Nov.47]

@@Geirkraakenes I’ve been mixing, producing, and releasing music for 20+ years. I can assure you that no platform applies any processing whatsoever to your files. There would be mass outrage in the audio community if they did. It’s not their place or their job to determine the sound of your mix or master and they don’t try to. Also, here’s the official definition of audio normalization: “Audio normalization is a process that adjusts the gain of an audio recording to a target level, while applying the same gain across the entire recording.” Normalization will not alter the sound of your mix. Third, plugins don’t need a certain level to operate properly (at least not in the past 15 years). What you may be confused about is the fact that some plugins that emulate hardware obviously saturate/distort at certain levels and they also may emulate the noise floor of said hardware. In the real world, there was sometimes a target (sweet spot) you would aim for to minimize noise and avoid distortion. However, most popular hardware (and the plugins that emulate them) have plenty of headroom and you really don’t need to do anything special other than not overloading the outputs. When it comes to non-hardware modern plugins, you don’t have to worry about overload distortion at all. You can push any level into a Fab Filter EQ, for example. It will never distort.

[@snubdawg1386]

@@Nov.47 good comment!

[@AKAtAGG]

Subbed because you talk like someone who knows his shit. I disagree about the LUFS thing just because for most artists nowadays they need to be close to what Spotify et al want them to be. I mix and master for loads of artists, and some of them prefer not to be close to -14LUFS because they want to be less loud. This, however, means they tend not to get many streams because if your song sounds TOTALLY different from the previous song in a playlist, you get skipped mate. edit: those dynamics you talk about early on, are the same as the dynamics in every song produced in the 80s and early 90s. all of those songs - or at least, almost all of them - have been remastered since then for streaming.

[@MrPaul8870]

Luffs wtf oh you mean total headroom without distorting . Basically simple dont hit the max and keep it yellow band. Trick use graphic equaliserr and pull under 0 evenly across board. Best way i think is play improvise quetly and then boost when happy with final sample. Luffs wtf lol thats a good one to confuse the geek in the crowd. Wow great riffs No great luffs Why is the music of today saturated to the max ? Dont mixers realise sometimes less is more ?