Measure Loudness in LUFS

[Anna_BRITstralian]

@steve

The whole point of LUFS measurements is to represent “subjective loudness” rather than just “amplitude”. When you play mono audio through a stereo system, the same sound plays through both speakers. If you take a pair of wire cutters and cut the cable to one of the speakers, then you will get half the sound (3 LU lower).

@Paul2

The error is that the audio levels sent to the plugin from Audacity are wrong, they are too high by up to 6dB, and it varies.
This means that any plugin that measures Peak, RMS, LUFS, will report the wrong values.

@jozefh

I hope that someone finds this useful.

Hi Steve, Paul and Jozefh

I have been scouring threads on this forum looking for help with my problem and whilst I haven’t found the answers, I feel you are all very knowledgeable and may be able to help me

BACKGROUND: I am editing a podcast and would like to achieve -16LUFS for it to be at the right level for Spotify, apple etc.

I am setting ‘Loudness Normalization’ on each individual track containing dialogue to -16 LUFS

THE ISSUE: However, once all tracks are mixed down to one, the Youlean meter is showing different LUFS levels under the ‘INTEGRATED’ heading as either much lower (-28 to -22 LUFS) or slightly higher (-13LUFS).

NOTE: only one person speaks at a time, except for the occasional agreeance with the speaker e.g. ‘yes’ or ‘ahhhh’

However, I do have intro and outro music (I use auto-duck to reduce the music when someone is speaking.

QUESTIONS:

1. Could the fact that multiple tracks are creating sound at the same time this be what is affecting my LUFS levels when mixed and rendered down to one track?

2. I am told that all of the popular streaming services will apply their own loudness normalization, so if that is the case, is it still worth applying ‘loudness normalization’ (to -16LUFS) on each separate track bfore doing the mix and export and doing it again?

3. Is it better to ONLY apply ‘loudness normalization’ once all tracks are mixed and rendered OR, is it still okay to apply ‘loudness normalization’ to each separate track - AND then again once mixed together?

Here is my original thread with all of my questions: LUFS levels change when mixed down to one track

Thank you so much in advance for any advice or tips!