I assume most folks have familiarized themselves with the myriad opinions around how loud to master. And if you have then you've certainly run into the LUFS discussions. The ones that make your head spin!
The streaming sites all have their protocols but for me there seems to be a misconception that you should master loudness levels specifically for streaming (or even for a specific site). If you are too loud they are gonna reduce your level. And it's that simple. Now if you have slammed your mix to the ceiling, i.e., the wave form looks like a 2x4, that's another issue. But if your mix retains dynamics yet is loud and you like it then according to some pretty knowledgeable folks that's OK. Why? Because when you upload it will be bumped down or up in db's and that is not going to deteriorate the quality of the track...caveat: as I understand it
If you are curious just drag one of your mixes to this site. It will not upload your file and will do a very rapid analysis and let you know how much several of the major streaming platforms would raise or lower the loudness of your production.
So I pulled in a track (professionally mixed and mastered) of something I always thought was WAY too hot. I can hear distortion in the finals. This is a major label release to the public. Crazy!
This specific song is "Move" by Luke Bryan.
Last edited by HearToLearn; 10/20/1907:37 AM.
Chad (Hope that makes it easier)
TEMPO TANTRUM: What a lead singer has when they can't stay in time.
Woweee. Thanks for that, Bud. Just the thing for me.
PS: OK, so I received flat bar for You Tube and the other, and a -1.9 for Spotify. If that means what I think, then my work is starting to pay off. Still, I have ask, what if the track is to quiet? That's been my problem, not loud enough. Do you happen to know?
PSPS: Wait, I think I see. I did another and it came out +1.3 on Spotify. Say, that Spotify is a picky one, hey?
Bud, I really like this. Great tip; thanks for sharing.
I tested some of my rough composer's drafts, and they are coming in pretty much on the button, though Spotify alone turns them down a tiny bit. My mastered CDs are all a bit hot for some of the services, around zero for others. That's exactly what I had expected.
This program takes some of the guesswork away from INDIVIDUAL services, assuming the algorithm of this program is correct. I knew about a little of the game YouTube is playing, and Pandora, but not the others - it was a mystery.
Thanks for this. It's excellent to see how the wav I upload to Soundcloud compares. Below is my latest song "The Day You Stepped Into My Life".
I take it to mean that the below values indicate that if I upload to any of the sites listed, what I hear at home here should be reasonably close to what I hear on the site after the upload (since loudness adjustment is minimal). If that's the case, it's good to know that I'm on the right track
I assume the "0' you got for iTunes mean they won't touch the level. But I wonder what the "--" means?
EDIT: The "--" means it won't be touched. The "0" for iTunes means it probably won't be touched, but for iTunes they state "iTunes penalties are rough estimates"
Interesting. Max reduction on a song I'm struggling with is -3dB for iTunes, but the uploaded wave / streamed SoundCloud song sounds like a different mix. Huge low end, compressed, frustrating.
Dang - great find, thanks for sharing! Got it bookmarked - I know a few people who'd get a lot out of this. Also is interesting to see the differences between streaming platforms.
Interesting. Max reduction on a song I'm struggling with is -3dB for iTunes, but the uploaded wave / streamed SoundCloud song sounds like a different mix. Huge low end, compressed, frustrating.
Scott
SC is one of the very few platforms that leaves loudness levels as uploaded. When listening on SC I check my monitor volume levels before each song as some are earthshaking and the next one may be whisper quite.
Like you I follow SC’s recommendations re uploads but sometimes they do sound over compressed. If so I replace the file on SC with a fresh upload of the same file and it sometimes sounds better. Beats me. One would think their algorithms would treat identical files the same.
1 - In youtube you can right click a video and select "stats for nerds" and see if the volume of a video was changed by youtube. You want to look at the line "Volume/Normalized", the first % is how high you have the video volume slider, the second % is how loud the video is playing. If the second % is lower than the first % then youtube has reduced the volume.
2 - I'd prefer to not have a streaming service change my file if I can avoid it. Even if it probably doesn't change the quality, but are we 100% sure of that? So I try to get it right going in by using the YouLean's free LUFS plugin.
1 - In youtube you can right click a video and select "stats for nerds" and see if the volume of a video was changed by youtube. You want to look at the line "Volume/Normalized", the first % is how high you have the video volume slider, the second % is how loud the video is playing. If the second % is lower than the first % then youtube has reduced the volume.
Didn't know you could do that, thanks! I just checked our latest video, shows Volume/Normalized at 100%/100%. After that however it says "content loudness -6.3 db", do you know what that means?
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