It's a free loudness metering VST that displays Loudness, Integrated Loudness, True Peak, Loudness Range, Dynamic Range and Peak-Loudness Ratio.Īlternatively, offer a great online service, which will tell you exactly where your master stands for streaming loudness. To keep track of your loudness values during the mastering process, as well as mixing, we suggest YouLean's Loudness Meter. Turning a master down tends to sound better than boosting it up, so even for Spotify's Loud mode, a 1dB boost in this case wouldn't make much of a difference.
A figure of -12 LUFS integrated, with a peak of -8dB means that most streaming services will be either in exactly your loudness range, or below. The usual number you'll hear is -14 LUFS overall, but for us, the best masters are actually a little louder.Ī -12dB master fits the best for streaming, in our opinion. Obviously, for the best translation, we want to take the average loudness and work within that. This has been integrated to compensate for sub-optimal listening conditions, for example, a noisy environment, or a quiet library. Premium users can now adjust the loudness of Spotify through the app settings. While the differences between -13 and -16 are usually negligible, we can't overlook one of the newer additions to Spotify – the custom volume normalization levels. SoundCloud levels everything at hotter levels, at -8 to -13 LUFS. Spotify and YouTube adjusts loudness to between -13 and -15 LUFS, while Apple Music and Deezer corrects to -16 LUFS. The fact of the matter is that you can't please everyone. Streaming services are tricky to master for. A mastering compressor will decrease your dynamic range, so compensating for this during mixing is a good idea. So when mixing, focus on getting the best clarity, with a large dynamic range. This gives us a dynamic range of 12dB.Īfter mastering, your dynamic range should be between 10dB and 16dB. Say your loudest point is at -6dB, while your quietest moments are around -18dB. Going from quiet to loud increases energy, and makes music more impactful.ĭynamic range is the difference between your loudness peaks and troughs. A lot of emotion, and forward movement in music, is dictated by the level of dynamic range. These decisions very much depend on genre and intended output.Ī jazz track will be mixed and mastered quieter than a hard dubstep track would.ĭynamic range is a very important consideration when mixing and mastering. Mix engineers like Steve Albini have long been intentionally squashing their dynamic range with limiters, to create louder and punchier mixes.
That being said, limiting isn't actually a bad thing in some cases. If your track mix is really hot (really loud), putting a limiter on the tail end of it, will leave a lot of unwanted clipping and digital distortion artefacts.Īdd to that a very compressed dynamic range, and your songs will start to sound like a mush of sounds, rather than a fully realized mix and master. Clarity is the sole reason we do any levelling, panning, stereo adjustments, compression etc.īy putting a limiter on your master bus, you're essentially reducing the dynamic range of your mix. Mixing is about clarity and balance across the board. Mixing, contrary to popular opinion, isn't about extracting as much loudness as you can from your track. Overusing limiters however, will reduce your dynamic range, while introducing clipping and other digital sound artefacts in your track. It's attractive, it's easy, you can mix how loud you want, and turn it down to proper levels with a limiter. One of the first things you'll learn as a mixing engineer is, don't cheat with a limiter on your master bus. That's the quick answer, but as usual, it's a bit more nuanced than that. If you want to send your mix off to get mastered, you should aim for around -6dB Peak, and anywhere from -23 dBFS RMS or LUFS to -18 dBFS RMS or LUFS average. How Loud Should My Track Be Before Mastering?
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