RMS is not a sound measurement. It’s a common technical measurement that happens to get close to loudness, or close enough to go with. It measures the energy inside the timeline waveforms. Most measurements and tools reference the tips and peaks.
There was a big sigh of relief when Loudness Normalization was developed. You used to have to guess at the loudness, measure the RMS, guess again, measure again, etc.
using the limiter
The limiter doesn’t affect loudness. It’s a peak acting tool—up and down tips of the blue waves. That’s why Audiobook Mastering uses both.
– Filter Curve is a rumble filter to get rid of low pitch trash. It was designed with broadcast and news gathering sound mixers in mind.
– Loudness Normalization to set overall volume.
– Limiter to tame those pesky tips and peaks.
You don’t have to apply each tool individually. I designed a Macro that applies all three tools in one action.
There are two ways you can mess this up. Announce so loud that the timeline overloads (red lines) and announce so quiet that the background noise just kills you.
It is highly recommended you don’t do either of those things because they’re difficult/impossible to fix later.
Koz