#155: Understanding Loudness In Mastering (LUFS, RMS And How Loud It Actually Needs To Be)

The Self-Recording Band

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Episode show notes:
How loud does my music need to be and how do we measure it in 2023?

We got a very interesting question on Instagram.

An experienced engineer who does great work but took a relatively long break from music production was wondering about how we measure loudness today, whether RMS was still relevant now that we have LUFS, and whether we can still master as loud as we did years ago, without negative consequences when our songs are played next to others on streaming platforms.

And he's definitely not alone. Many people seem to be confused about different ways of measuring loudness and also the always changing trends and opinions on the topic.

To answer the question directly, we also explain the difference between RMS and LUFS:

RMS:
“Root mean square”. The average level of your audio signal, measured over a longer period of time, and close to what your ears perceive as the loudness of your audio.

LUFS:
“Loudness units relative to Full Scale”. This is a loudness standard designed to enable the matching of perceived audio levels. So that different signals (or songs) will sound equally loud, no matter what the dB meter says.
Loudness Units (or LU) is a unit that describes loudness by taking into account how our hearing perceives volume. Not just pure sound pressure or amplitude, like “dB” does.
And again, “FS” means “relative to full scale”. So, for example, -18 LUFS means “18 LU away from the maximum of 0”. The difference between -23 LUFS and -18 LUFS, for example is 5 LU.

Then we're sharing how we do it in our own projects:

• How loud do we master and why?
• How do we measure it?
• How important is it to us?

And one final word of caution:

Be careful about different RMS settings on your meters! AES-17 on/off makes a 3dB difference. One RMS value doesn't necessary equal another RMS value.

Be careful when comparing anything, basically. There's many different ways to measure loudness and volume and it's easy to get confused and compare different things without noticing.

More details on that in the episode.

Let's go!

-Benedikt

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For full show notes go to: https://theselfrecordingband.com/155
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