Hi Chris, this was by far one of the best videos that I have seen that explains the differences between LUFS, true peak, integrated vs short term, that has finally glued all the jigsaw pieces of the puzzle together. Thank you for taking the time to make these incredibly useful videos, especially for those of us lucky enough to use Cubase Pro.
I was just utilizing the control room in my mix last night but wasn’t 100% certain of all it’s parameters - not anymore, though! You totally uploaded this at the perfect time. Thank you for sharing this information!! I’ve been learning so much about Cubase thanks to you. 👏🏻
I bought your Cubase course ,,, I want to thank you for the work you put into all the videos ,,,,, I have learned more in one week than the 2 years I tried to find all the functions ,,,,, I have started writing music instead of looking for different functions ,,,, The next step is to learn more about mixing ,,,,,,,
Great to hear, Kenneth. Very happy the course is helpful :-) Lucky for you, my Mixing course is gonna be out very soon, finalizing the last videos and website and stuff :-)
You are the best Chris... Your method of explaining is so much easier to follow than anyone else out there. Most others are talking over my head and moving along much too quickly. Thank you for your nice tempo in presenting your videos!!!!
YESSSS Finally I have a question that's very much related!!! :D First an observation: I've tested many songs (.WAV purchased on BeatPort in the techno, melodic techno, progressive etc etc etc, basically "club banger" genre) from Artists that are very much on top of the totem pole ..don't wanna name anyone, but these Artists are definitely famous/popular/established/busy AND loaded enough to know for a fact that they use a "pro" mixing/mastering engineer for all their releases.. Pretty much all these songs in Nuendo as well as Ableton, (with an absolutely clean audio flow, zero processing, on one single audio track, measured with different loudness plugins AND referenced against a master that I know is -0.3 db true peak) were peaking AT +0.3 db TO AS HIGH AS +1.5 db on the true peak meter, on the Master channel. Basically digital clipping on the master up to +1.5 db... The Integrated loudness is anywhere between -8 to -6 LUFS. The tracks did sound ok, and I couldn't really hear a noticeable digital distortion. So here are my questions: a) Is this a new norm to ignore all rules and drive the master well into digital clipping these days? b) Are these super loud masters sent to streaming services at -6 LUFS and +1.5 db True Peak, or is there a 2nd version for these songs; one super loud one for BeatPort and one at -14 LUFS and -1 db True Peak for streaming services? Thanks Chris! Cheers, Attila
Oh Yeah, a related question...YOU DID IT!!! Lol Seriously, all your questions are welcome :-) That's a good question and a bit complicated to explain... Here's the deal, that can happen when a song was mastered loud and with a high ceiling point, let's say at -0.1or even 0dbfs off the Limiter. When the audio is converted from digital to analog (so you can hear it on your speakers), the conversion can cause slight changes in the levels of the audio, so these loud masters are producing what we call inter-sample peaks and that affects the true peak level. Note that even if the TP is above 0, your loud reference track will not go above 0dbfs on the channel itself. True Peak and dbfs are very close, but not entirely the same. True Peak is the level after that conversion occurs, basically the level in which it will translate on speakers. I didn't go there in my video, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. The reason why you don't hear any distortion is that your converters can handle those inter-sample peaks but cheaper home sound system will not. a) This is not a new norm, especially not for streaming however, it was very current to get above the True Peak during the Loudness War. b) Some productions will still master very loud, especially club EDM music, but a lot of them will master a version for streaming also. Just remember that the louder you get, the less dynamic range you get and that will affect the audio quality at some point. Hope that helps! :-)
@@mixdownonline Oh yes it helps tremendously :) Thanks so much Chris for taking the time to write a detailed answer! Just a quick follow up Q: If there is a Loud version and also a -14 LUFS version of the same song, I assume it's the releasing label's responsibility to make sure the right versions get to the appropriate place, correct? Cheers, Attila
Hey Chris, another very very informative video from your end and perhaps one of the very important aspects of mastering explained by you really well.This by far is the best video I have seen explaining the metering section of a mix
Hi Chris! You really made my day here in Sweden. I really appreciate what you are doing. Now I have a better understanding regarding LUFS and TRUE PEAK. THX! Best regards Torbjörn
Hi Chris! Thanks for the great Video! There is a slight Mistake in your description of LUFS: What you're describing here is the so-called 'Hearing- Weighting', which is often depicted as (A) Weighting like in db(A). This compensates for our ears being more or less susceptile in various frequency bands. Event though this is PART of the LUFS-Measurements, it is by far not all there is to it. You mentioned the time-dependant parts of LUFS, meaning the in a long piece you might have a short, loud impulse without the LUFS going nuts. AFAIK LUFS even accounts for real 'silence', which does NOT change the integral-value and so on. So, there's much more to it than the (A)-Weighting you mentioned.
You're welcome :-) Yes, but my goal is to keep this topic as simple and practical as possible so people can understand easily. LUFS is not easy to understand for a lot. Same for True Peak, I keep it simple, even if in reality there is more to it. All those technical details do not add much to the essence of a video like this one. However, I appreciate you sharing those details, though, thanks for your input on this Ralf :-)
Ozone has a great feature that allows you to target your desired LUFS , It will automatically compress your track until it meets your target . Great tool 👍👍 I highly recommend it .
Really helpful video to understand what is going on with that stereo meter... Its a nightmare... For example, how to prepare the stereo bus before uploading your track to a mastering machine or sending to a mastering services?... LUFS is about dbFS?... How can you control dbFS without changing true peak?... Just pushing up Limiter's input?... Thinks like these. Wish U the Best!
Chris, merci beaucoup for this video. Do you have another video explaining the meters setup inside the gear icon? Besides the integrated and true peak values there are a bunch of other settings to chose.
Once again, one of the best videos about loudness! Nobody will leave here without understanding the theory. Chris Selim never disappoints! Thank you! ( Bytheway Selim is a turkish name. Do you know where your name comes from? Im from turkey. )
Salut Chris! (Par tes vidéos j'ai cru comprendre que tu étais québécois alors je te devine francophone).D'abord Merci pour tes vidéos. Ils me sont très utiles, presque tous les jours en ce moment. Après l'écoute de ce tutoriel sur le mastering pour les plateformes, j'ai testé ma pièce de référence sur le Vumètre Loudness de mon cubase: la pièce "The Greatest Show", du film du même nom. C'est dans le style de ce que je compose actuellement. Très lourd, très rempli, beaucoup d'instruments et de choeurs. J'ai téléchargé la chanson en wav sur l'Apple Store. Je me demandais comment se faisait-il que les résultats du vumètre sont: -7,9 LUFS Interated et +0,68 de Reel Peak? Aussi, dans un autre ordre d'idée: je trouve difficile, lorsque je mixe, d'utiliser une telle référence déjà masterisée. C'est biensûr toujours plus lourd avec tout ce gain maximisé. Encore merci pour tes tutos super intéressants!!
Great video, thanks. I was a bit lost with those LUFS. Two questions though... 1. What is the release time on the limiter? Do you set it up to a specific value or does it depend of the song/style or do you just crank it down to minimum? 2. What is better to use (in Cubase) limiter or brickwall limiter?
1. That is a whole other topic for another video but for this one, the default attack/release at 500ms worked well. 2. The Cubase Limiter is ok since you can add more input level Happy you liked the video :--)
I appreciate your always being honest. It means a lot to mean when you will convey to us if a 3rd party plugin like fab filter's is superior. Your word means a whole lot to many of us. If I may ask, how are Wavelabs mastering tools compared to cubase and fabfilter?
I'll be honest with you, I never made a mastering in Wavelab, only DDP Montages for clients. It does have a lot of nice mastering tools. The wave editing features are quite advanced from what I understand which can be good when mastering.
@@mixdownonline Again, thank you SO VERY much for your honesty. You're the best! :-D (Fingers Crossed for SpectraLayers7 promotional Discounts after the Waves promotion): :-D
Great explanation. However, I’ve realised I don’t want to be an expert in all this and wish every DAW just had an auto mastering/ levelling button to do all this if you want it.
Hi Chris, thanks a million for this instructive video! I was wondering: can you also address the question if we should master for the so-called "sound enhancements" (f.i. in Windows) that most people have on by default? It boosts the bass, makes music louder etc. I have also noticed that the so-called enhacements can lead to unwanted distortions. Can we/should we circumvent these distortions and anhancements in our master? is that even possible? Cheers.
I've been using loudness penalty for a bit. No science behind this but what I have found is that if your penalty difference between Spotify and TH-cam (or Tidal they are usually the same) is around 2db or more, your song will sound quieter on Spotify than others of the same genre. Spotify seems to be the unpredictable one, it must not use only LUFS. Anyone else noticed this?
Yes, not all Streaming Services use LUFS, most of them do, but not all of them. That's why the Loudness Penalty is super useful. Apple Music uses their own loudness metering system and Spotify uses ReplayGain which is similar to LUFS but but doesn't react the same way. Spotify recommends LUFS because they will convert to LUFS soon. It's not a big deal though, I (most of the time) get penalized by 1 or 2 dB on average by most services and I'm good with that. It's my sweet spot ;-)
@@mixdownonline Hopefully you see this. If not I'll just have to upload and experiment. Is 1 - 2 dB a pretty acceptable penalty? I've been trying to get my tracks around .5dB but have to sacrifice loudness and impact. What are your thoughts?
Bonjour Chris ! Merci pour votre vidéo toujours clair et pertinent. Une petite question sur le niveau de sortie de votre mix pour attaquer le tegeler crème . Quelle est le sweet spot pour vous ? Merci d’avance et bravo !
If you stay below the loudness guideline levels of streaming services, they will turn your mix up and slap on a limiter with fixed attack and release times to keep it below the ceiling. This is way more scary than limiting a bit harder yourself, with all control over the parameters, and them just turning it down in the end. Another question to ask yourself when mastering: once Spotify goes the way of the iTunes and the next big platform comes around (maybe one that doesn't require 2 dB of headroom because of lossy conversion algorithms), can you just send your masters there or will you need to remaster your music because you over-optimized it for Spotify? Chasing numbers can be fun but I'm not sure if it's helpful in the long run.
Thx Chris for your great way of explaining and advice. May i ad a "Shortcut to check on LUFS" of whole mastered song. Import in Cubase as part and activate it In audio menu choose Statistics. All you need will be reported
I did reference with professionally mastered tracks and true peak in Cubase PRO always go above 0. Like +0,4 to +0,7. Why is that so and should i keep it below 0 when i master my own tracks?
A bit complicated to explain but yes, that can happen when a song was mastered loud and with a high ceiling point, let's say at -0.1or even 0dbfs. When the audio is converted from digital to analog (so you can hear it on your speakers), the conversion can cause slight changes in the levels of the audio, so these loud masters are producing what we call inter-sample peaks and that affects the true peak level. Note that even if the TP is above 0, your loud reference track will not go above 0dbfs on the channel itself. True Peak and dbfs are close, but not entirely the same. Don't worry too much about that, music used to be mastered very loud during the Loudness War and since Streaming is the main format, less and less commercial music are mastered loud. Keep your TP level at -1 and you'll be ok.
Hi Chris, great video as usual! I need your help: I don't know why I can't see the values under the Loudness meter. I'm talking about the "short term", "Integrated", "Range" values and so on. Thanx
You don't need to master to any LUFS level. Just master to taste. They will just lower the overall volume using their own algorithms. I suggest to check the effect your song will experience, after they turn down the volume, with Streamliner. Then use the LUFS leveling as a check but not to actually master at that level.
First, fantastic tutorial. My question is , are there other considerations when mastering for streaming services i.e. equalization? Also can I take a "mastered for CD" track and adjust it for streaming with good results sonically?
Thank you so much for one more great video Chris. But I have question! For example, if I finished my master for CD ( -0.3 TP and -8 LUFS for example ) , what is the best way to bring down LUFS for streaming services? At what point in my master signal chain or knob we need to bring down to make the best results so CD MASTER and STREAMING MASTER have the same sound? Maybe it’s a good idea if you can make that kind of tutorial? :)
Same here, I bounce 2 masters, one at -1TP and the other one at -0.3TP however, I keep the same LUFS loudness as I do for streaming to keep the same dynamic range and audio quality. If your master sound's great at -9 LUFS, it doesn't matter if you keep it this way for both formats, but if you master sound's best at around -11LUFS and sounds too squashy at -9LUFS, don't push it, leave it at -11 LUFS in this case. It doesn't matter if your CD master has the same loudness as your streaming master. CD masters used to be quieter back in the 90's before the loudness war started.
Thank you Chris for reply . I know all that what you just answered and I’m also doing 2 exports. But that wasn’t my question (maybe because of my bad english you misunderstood my point). If I am for example satisfied with my master at -8LUFS and bring down tru peak from -0,3 to -1 dB, streaming services will compress that master to -14LUFS, right? So, I guess I need pull down input knob on my limiter for example and match -14LUFS... but that dynamic range will be diferent. I guess the best way is to make 2 diferent MASTER from scrach?
Hello Chris, thank you for this great explanations of the LUFS concept for upload a stereo track on streaming platforms. The process of LUFS adjustment for a Dolby Atmos mixed track would be quite the same, or does it need more complex processing ?
Most of the songs upload to Spotify have a LUFS of -10 and less, even if it is suggested to upload at -14dbfs. Create a playlist on Spotify and compare songs you know at -14dbfs and some "popular" songs mastered at a louder volume. You will observe a real difference in volume. Isn't it?
In general, I find the level of most tracks pretty close to each other, but yes, it can happen that you will get quieter tracks. The thing is that most streaming services will not bring masters louder if it was mastered too quiet. Also, LUFS will not take into account the content of the music, it will only tell you the average loudness of the music. That's why in my video, I mastered the loudest part of my Mix louder than -14LUFS so I can get the average level close to -14 LUFS. And for Spotify, they do suggest LUFS but they are still using Replay Gain as a loudness measurement system that is very close to LUFS but doesn't react entirely the same. They will switch to LUFS soon though. That's why the Loudness Penality Analyzer website is very useful. I always try to get penalized by a couple of db for Spotify. Check out my discussion with Ian Shepherd, he talks about that at the 20min mark point th-cam.com/video/FEc0KE3jp6E/w-d-xo.html
Hey Denis, I just noticed that on Spotify, you can disable Loudness Normalization that is active by default. Maybe yours is disable...I use TH-cam Music on my end and I don't have that feature.
Hi Chris, I heard that when we are mixing, as long as we don't cross zero db on master output, we are ok. Other people say that the mix should has 6db of headroom. Can you make a video explaining this, specially for people that produce and mix on the flow?
Hey Chris, What I do is, once happy with the Mix and Master, I set my left and right locators for the complete export of the audio, let it play through completely for the full song. If I get an Integrated LUFS as - 17, I raise it via a limiter by 3db. This gives me an overall LUFS at - 14, whereas my loudest parts go near upto - 10 to -11 LUFS. Is this process correct? 🤔
Hi, Chris. When I finish a mixing, what should be the best achievement in terms of dBfs, true peak level and d integrated lufs? Chances are that many times when I want to master a song the lufs are already too high... there's no room for mastering. Thank you.
so what is the green meter marking at when that mine its at -5db toreach -14lufsim mixing metal this is soooo confucing and frustrating when clients wnat it louder and louder but you are way up there and they dont get it
Hi Chris, thanks for all your great advice. One thing I am confused about; with Cubase Pro 11 , using LUFS meter, I get a higher reading say -14 with the LU tab selection than LUFS. Can you clarify please. Ted
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Hi Chris, this was by far one of the best videos that I have seen that explains the differences between LUFS, true peak, integrated vs short term, that has finally glued all the jigsaw pieces of the puzzle together. Thank you for taking the time to make these incredibly useful videos, especially for those of us lucky enough to use Cubase Pro.
You're welcome, Glad it was helpful!
I was just utilizing the control room in my mix last night but wasn’t 100% certain of all it’s parameters - not anymore, though! You totally uploaded this at the perfect time. Thank you for sharing this information!! I’ve been learning so much about Cubase thanks to you. 👏🏻
You're welcome!
I bought your Cubase course ,,, I want to thank you for the work you put into all the videos ,,,,, I have learned more in one week than the 2 years I tried to find all the functions ,,,,, I have started writing music instead of looking for different functions ,,,, The next step is to learn more about mixing ,,,,,,,
Great to hear, Kenneth. Very happy the course is helpful :-) Lucky for you, my Mixing course is gonna be out very soon, finalizing the last videos and website and stuff :-)
You are the best Chris... Your method of explaining is so much easier to follow than anyone else out there. Most others are talking over my head and moving along much too quickly. Thank you for your nice tempo in presenting your videos!!!!
A very simple explanation of what could be perceived as a complex topic. Thanks, Chris...:)
Again, super-practical info on this kind of nebulous streaming loudness question. Well done Chris!!
Glad it was helpful!
Fantastic video bro! Very good explanation of all stages and different aspects of this complicated topic! Huge thumbs up!
Thanks bro! Yes, definately a complicated topic and there's more to it that I didn't include in the video to keep it simple...
@@mixdownonline I bet! We need to chat about it next time over a beer :)
Insanely helpful video, I’m bout to really get my music right now
YESSSS Finally I have a question that's very much related!!! :D
First an observation:
I've tested many songs (.WAV purchased on BeatPort in the techno, melodic techno, progressive etc etc etc, basically "club banger" genre) from Artists that are very much on top of the totem pole ..don't wanna name anyone, but these Artists are definitely famous/popular/established/busy AND loaded enough to know for a fact that they use a "pro" mixing/mastering engineer for all their releases..
Pretty much all these songs in Nuendo as well as Ableton, (with an absolutely clean audio flow, zero processing, on one single audio track, measured with different loudness plugins AND referenced against a master that I know is -0.3 db true peak) were peaking AT +0.3 db TO AS HIGH AS +1.5 db on the true peak meter, on the Master channel. Basically digital clipping on the master up to +1.5 db... The Integrated loudness is anywhere between -8 to -6 LUFS.
The tracks did sound ok, and I couldn't really hear a noticeable digital distortion. So here are my questions:
a) Is this a new norm to ignore all rules and drive the master well into digital clipping these days?
b) Are these super loud masters sent to streaming services at -6 LUFS and +1.5 db True Peak, or is there a 2nd version for these songs; one super loud one for BeatPort and one at -14 LUFS and -1 db True Peak for streaming services?
Thanks Chris!
Cheers,
Attila
Oh Yeah, a related question...YOU DID IT!!! Lol Seriously, all your questions are welcome :-)
That's a good question and a bit complicated to explain... Here's the deal, that can happen when a song was mastered loud and with a high ceiling point, let's say at -0.1or even 0dbfs off the Limiter. When the audio is converted from digital to analog (so you can hear it on your speakers), the conversion can cause slight changes in the levels of the audio, so these loud masters are producing what we call inter-sample peaks and that affects the true peak level. Note that even if the TP is above 0, your loud reference track will not go above 0dbfs on the channel itself. True Peak and dbfs are very close, but not entirely the same. True Peak is the level after that conversion occurs, basically the level in which it will translate on speakers. I didn't go there in my video, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. The reason why you don't hear any distortion is that your converters can handle those inter-sample peaks but cheaper home sound system will not.
a) This is not a new norm, especially not for streaming however, it was very current to get above the True Peak during the Loudness War.
b) Some productions will still master very loud, especially club EDM music, but a lot of them will master a version for streaming also. Just remember that the louder you get, the less dynamic range you get and that will affect the audio quality at some point.
Hope that helps! :-)
@@mixdownonline Oh yes it helps tremendously :) Thanks so much Chris for taking the time to write a detailed answer!
Just a quick follow up Q: If there is a Loud version and also a -14 LUFS version of the same song, I assume it's the releasing label's responsibility to make sure the right versions get to the appropriate place, correct?
Cheers,
Attila
Hey Chris, another very very informative video from your end and perhaps one of the very important aspects of mastering explained by you really well.This by far is the best video I have seen explaining the metering section of a mix
Hi Chris! You really made my day here in Sweden. I really appreciate what you are doing. Now I have a better understanding regarding LUFS and TRUE PEAK. THX! Best regards Torbjörn
Happy to help!
Great video Chris! Super explanation for a frequently confusing topic!
Thank you! Glad it was helpful!
Man, great explanation...finally I understand it.... Thank you!!
Love your tutorials thank you Chris.....what is beyond me is why do people put a thumbs down on the video ?
I know but that's part of the game :-) Thanks!
Great video, Chris. Very useful. Thanks.
Glad it's helpful!
Precise, clear, complete ... brilliant! As always. Thank you again Chris
Glad you enjoyed it
Kudos Chris, well done. Explication très claire, comme d'habitude. Excellent canal !
Hi Chris! Thanks for the great Video! There is a slight Mistake in your description of LUFS: What you're describing here is the so-called 'Hearing- Weighting', which is often depicted as (A) Weighting like in db(A). This compensates for our ears being more or less susceptile in various frequency bands. Event though this is PART of the LUFS-Measurements, it is by far not all there is to it. You mentioned the time-dependant parts of LUFS, meaning the in a long piece you might have a short, loud impulse without the LUFS going nuts. AFAIK LUFS even accounts for real 'silence', which does NOT change the integral-value and so on. So, there's much more to it than the (A)-Weighting you mentioned.
You're welcome :-) Yes, but my goal is to keep this topic as simple and practical as possible so people can understand easily. LUFS is not easy to understand for a lot. Same for True Peak, I keep it simple, even if in reality there is more to it. All those technical details do not add much to the essence of a video like this one. However, I appreciate you sharing those details, though, thanks for your input on this Ralf :-)
This is the best video that explain enough to master our song for streaming services.
Great video! Thank you.
You are welcome!
Thank you, Chris! Absolutely brilliant!
Thank you!
Best video by far specifically on this topic. Great job man appreciate you
Hi Chris, thanks a lot for this! Brilliant as always!
My pleasure!
Ozone has a great feature that allows you to target your desired LUFS , It will automatically compress your track until it meets your target . Great tool 👍👍 I highly recommend it .
saw a lot of videos on mixing but i have to tell that yours are the best, thanks !
Thanks Chris, great tip
Any time!
it was the best video for understanding lufs and metering ever!!!!thanks you Chris for your tips and for the incredible video!
Very helpful! Thank you!
Thanks for the great info Chris.
Any time!
Thanks Chris, Great video as usual :) very good explanation ..
Thanks!
Thank you for mentioning non Cubase Pro users.. As an Elements user this helps a lot with knowing which features I can use.
You're welcome!
Marvelous... thank you Chris!
My pleasure!
Like the theme sounding on background... I want the name please. GREAT vid..as allways 👈🏾🧢!!!
Thank you, Chris! Very informative.
Glad it was helpful!
I release tracks on streaming services, so this is very helpful! Thanks for an amazing video again Chris!
Happy to help!
Really helpful video to understand what is going on with that stereo meter... Its a nightmare... For example, how to prepare the stereo bus before uploading your track to a mastering machine or sending to a mastering services?... LUFS is about dbFS?... How can you control dbFS without changing true peak?... Just pushing up Limiter's input?... Thinks like these.
Wish U the Best!
Really clear and helpfull ;)
And thanks to speak clearly for french guy like me. Easy to understand :))
Good job! And thank u for it
Glad to hear that! :-)
Finally understand all this, thank you
Chris, thank you for such an informative video and all of your other content 👍
Chris, merci beaucoup for this video. Do you have another video explaining the meters setup inside the gear icon? Besides the integrated and true peak values there are a bunch of other settings to chose.
Great video as always Chris! Thanks for everything you do for the community! - chaz
Any time! Thanks for watching bro!
Best video out there!!! Thank you so much Chris!! ✨
Thank you! Great job explaining a complex issue!
Glad it was helpful!
finally,thanx man,you demistified this ,i was so confused with this,you are king
Thank You so much Chris
great explanation Chris, thanks again!
My pleasure!
Once again, one of the best videos about loudness! Nobody will leave here without understanding the theory. Chris Selim never disappoints! Thank you!
( Bytheway Selim is a turkish name. Do you know where your name comes from? Im from turkey. )
You're welcome! Yes, I know about Selim. My father is from Egypt actually :-)
Great Tips, as Always - Thanks Sir!
You're welcome!
Thank you sir, very good.
Hi Chris!!! Please make a video about how we can use simultaneously two interfaces in cubase, if we can!!! thanks!!
Thank you for this!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks, will do!
I still use K-system. K-12 works very well IMO.
that was very informative, thank you
Very good video! Thank's Chris for this tutorial!
Salut Chris!
(Par tes vidéos j'ai cru comprendre que tu étais québécois alors je te devine francophone).D'abord Merci pour tes vidéos. Ils me sont très utiles, presque tous les jours en ce moment.
Après l'écoute de ce tutoriel sur le mastering pour les plateformes, j'ai testé ma pièce de référence sur le Vumètre Loudness de mon cubase: la pièce "The Greatest Show", du film du même nom. C'est dans le style de ce que je compose actuellement. Très lourd, très rempli, beaucoup d'instruments et de choeurs. J'ai téléchargé la chanson en wav sur l'Apple Store.
Je me demandais comment se faisait-il que les résultats du vumètre sont: -7,9 LUFS Interated et +0,68 de Reel Peak?
Aussi, dans un autre ordre d'idée: je trouve difficile, lorsque je mixe, d'utiliser une telle référence déjà masterisée. C'est biensûr toujours plus lourd avec tout ce gain maximisé.
Encore merci pour tes tutos super intéressants!!
Great video, thanks. I was a bit lost with those LUFS. Two questions though...
1. What is the release time on the limiter? Do you set it up to a specific value or does it depend of the song/style or do you just crank it down to minimum?
2. What is better to use (in Cubase) limiter or brickwall limiter?
1. That is a whole other topic for another video but for this one, the default attack/release at 500ms worked well.
2. The Cubase Limiter is ok since you can add more input level
Happy you liked the video :--)
Thanks a lot for this really helpful video! Well explained as always, great!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thx for the great video🔥🔥🔥
Any time! Thanks!
Really really well explained! Thank you!
You're very welcome!
Invaluable
Fantastic info
Glad you think so!
Thank you man! Super helpful video!
I appreciate your always being honest. It means a lot to mean when you will convey to us if a 3rd party plugin like fab filter's is superior. Your word means a whole lot to many of us.
If I may ask, how are Wavelabs mastering tools compared to cubase and fabfilter?
I'll be honest with you, I never made a mastering in Wavelab, only DDP Montages for clients. It does have a lot of nice mastering tools. The wave editing features are quite advanced from what I understand which can be good when mastering.
@@mixdownonline Again, thank you SO VERY much for your honesty. You're the best! :-D
(Fingers Crossed for SpectraLayers7 promotional Discounts after the Waves promotion): :-D
Thank you so much !
hi chris
love your videos. Q: what scale do u use in the metering section? thx 👍👍👍
Great explanation. However, I’ve realised I don’t want to be an expert in all this and wish every DAW just had an auto mastering/ levelling button to do all this if you want it.
Fantastic tutorial - I really appreciate it!
Great video again! 👍
Great video!
Thanks!
Hi Chris, thanks a million for this instructive video! I was wondering: can you also address the question if we should master for the so-called "sound enhancements" (f.i. in Windows) that most people have on by default? It boosts the bass, makes music louder etc. I have also noticed that the so-called enhacements can lead to unwanted distortions. Can we/should we circumvent these distortions and anhancements in our master? is that even possible? Cheers.
I've been using loudness penalty for a bit. No science behind this but what I have found is that if your penalty difference between Spotify and TH-cam (or Tidal they are usually the same) is around 2db or more, your song will sound quieter on Spotify than others of the same genre. Spotify seems to be the unpredictable one, it must not use only LUFS. Anyone else noticed this?
Yes, not all Streaming Services use LUFS, most of them do, but not all of them. That's why the Loudness Penalty is super useful. Apple Music uses their own loudness metering system and Spotify uses ReplayGain which is similar to LUFS but but doesn't react the same way. Spotify recommends LUFS because they will convert to LUFS soon. It's not a big deal though, I (most of the time) get penalized by 1 or 2 dB on average by most services and I'm good with that. It's my sweet spot ;-)
@@mixdownonline Hopefully you see this. If not I'll just have to upload and experiment. Is 1 - 2 dB a pretty acceptable penalty? I've been trying to get my tracks around .5dB but have to sacrifice loudness and impact. What are your thoughts?
thanks for video! The problem is there is a knob in Spotify to disable normalization . And users use it!)
At this point, I would say that it's the user's problem to be honest. I use TH-cam Music and I don't have that feature.
Bonjour Chris ! Merci pour votre vidéo toujours clair et pertinent. Une petite question sur le niveau de sortie de votre mix pour attaquer le tegeler crème . Quelle est le sweet spot pour vous ? Merci d’avance et bravo !
Ça me fait plaisir :--) Pour le Tegeler, en général, je sors à environ plus ou moins -6dbfs pour aller au Tegeler.
Chris Selim - Mixdown Online merci Chris pour votre réponse, je ferai certainement comme vous :)
Thanks!!!
If you stay below the loudness guideline levels of streaming services, they will turn your mix up and slap on a limiter with fixed attack and release times to keep it below the ceiling. This is way more scary than limiting a bit harder yourself, with all control over the parameters, and them just turning it down in the end.
Another question to ask yourself when mastering: once Spotify goes the way of the iTunes and the next big platform comes around (maybe one that doesn't require 2 dB of headroom because of lossy conversion algorithms), can you just send your masters there or will you need to remaster your music because you over-optimized it for Spotify? Chasing numbers can be fun but I'm not sure if it's helpful in the long run.
Thx Chris for your great way of explaining and advice. May i ad a "Shortcut to check on LUFS" of whole mastered song. Import in Cubase as part and activate it In audio menu choose Statistics. All you need will be reported
Yes, that one is pretty cool. I covered this one on an older Cubase Tips video :-)
Thanks Chris, great info clearly delivered. Do you have a preference between YouLean or the Cubase Pro Control room LUFS meter?
I just use the one in Cubase since it's right in front of me, but they're both good.
I did reference with professionally mastered tracks and true peak in Cubase PRO always go above 0. Like +0,4 to +0,7. Why is that so and should i keep it below 0 when i master my own tracks?
A bit complicated to explain but yes, that can happen when a song was mastered loud and with a high ceiling point, let's say at -0.1or even 0dbfs. When the audio is converted from digital to analog (so you can hear it on your speakers), the conversion can cause slight changes in the levels of the audio, so these loud masters are producing what we call inter-sample peaks and that affects the true peak level. Note that even if the TP is above 0, your loud reference track will not go above 0dbfs on the channel itself. True Peak and dbfs are close, but not entirely the same.
Don't worry too much about that, music used to be mastered very loud during the Loudness War and since Streaming is the main format, less and less commercial music are mastered loud. Keep your TP level at -1 and you'll be ok.
Hi Chris, great video as usual! I need your help: I don't know why I can't see the values under the Loudness meter. I'm talking about the "short term", "Integrated", "Range" values and so on. Thanx
You don't need to master to any LUFS level. Just master to taste. They will just lower the overall volume using their own algorithms. I suggest to check the effect your song will experience, after they turn down the volume, with Streamliner. Then use the LUFS leveling as a check but not to actually master at that level.
Thx Chris. So in general it's better to have streaming services turn your masters down a bit vs not being loud enough?
First, fantastic tutorial. My question is , are there other considerations when mastering for streaming services i.e. equalization? Also can I take a "mastered for CD" track and adjust it for streaming with good results sonically?
Thank you so much for one more great video Chris. But I have question!
For example, if I finished my master for CD ( -0.3 TP and -8 LUFS for example ) , what is the best way to bring down LUFS for streaming services? At what point in my master signal chain or knob we need to bring down to make the best results so CD MASTER and STREAMING MASTER have the same sound?
Maybe it’s a good idea if you can make that kind of tutorial? :)
in my case, I master twice, 1st at -9LUFS for cd and 2nd at - 14 LUFS for streaming
Same here, I bounce 2 masters, one at -1TP and the other one at -0.3TP however, I keep the same LUFS loudness as I do for streaming to keep the same dynamic range and audio quality. If your master sound's great at -9 LUFS, it doesn't matter if you keep it this way for both formats, but if you master sound's best at around -11LUFS and sounds too squashy at -9LUFS, don't push it, leave it at -11 LUFS in this case. It doesn't matter if your CD master has the same loudness as your streaming master. CD masters used to be quieter back in the 90's before the loudness war started.
Thank you Chris for reply . I know all that what you just answered and I’m also doing 2 exports. But that wasn’t my question (maybe because of my bad english you misunderstood my point). If I am for example satisfied with my master at -8LUFS and bring down tru peak from -0,3 to -1 dB, streaming services will compress that master to -14LUFS, right? So, I guess I need pull down input knob on my limiter for example and match -14LUFS... but that dynamic range will be diferent.
I guess the best way is to make 2 diferent MASTER from scrach?
Hello Chris, thank you for this great explanations of the LUFS concept for upload a stereo track on streaming platforms. The process of LUFS adjustment for a Dolby Atmos mixed track would be quite the same, or does it need more complex processing ?
Good question, I'm no expert when it comes to Atmos Mixing, but from what I understand, the loudness approach is diferent.
thank you ;)
Nice video thnx
Awesome
Very useful! Thanks
You're welcome!
Most of the songs upload to Spotify have a LUFS of -10 and less, even if it is suggested to upload at -14dbfs. Create a playlist on Spotify and compare songs you know at -14dbfs and some "popular" songs mastered at a louder volume. You will observe a real difference in volume. Isn't it?
In general, I find the level of most tracks pretty close to each other, but yes, it can happen that you will get quieter tracks. The thing is that most streaming services will not bring masters louder if it was mastered too quiet. Also, LUFS will not take into account the content of the music, it will only tell you the average loudness of the music. That's why in my video, I mastered the loudest part of my Mix louder than -14LUFS so I can get the average level close to -14 LUFS.
And for Spotify, they do suggest LUFS but they are still using Replay Gain as a loudness measurement system that is very close to LUFS but doesn't react entirely the same. They will switch to LUFS soon though. That's why the Loudness Penality Analyzer website is very useful. I always try to get penalized by a couple of db for Spotify.
Check out my discussion with Ian Shepherd, he talks about that at the 20min mark point th-cam.com/video/FEc0KE3jp6E/w-d-xo.html
Hey Denis, I just noticed that on Spotify, you can disable Loudness Normalization that is active by default. Maybe yours is disable...I use TH-cam Music on my end and I don't have that feature.
@@mixdownonline Thanks Chris (merci). Where is this control on the Spotify playlist page?
@@dbtube It's in Settings...It's called Normalize Volume
Hi Chris from Italy! Do you think is it possibile to download Fab Filter Q3 and use it in Cubase 10.5 (Fab Filter is a AAX plugin developed by Avid)?
Yes, I use it all the time...ProQ3 comes in VST3 as well. It's my favorite EQ plugin :-)
great video
Thanks!
This is gold!
Thanks!
Hi Chris, I heard that when we are mixing, as long as we don't cross zero db on master output, we are ok. Other people say that the mix should has 6db of headroom. Can you make a video explaining this, specially for people that produce and mix on the flow?
Check this video out th-cam.com/video/eI-u6_Zq7FQ/w-d-xo.html Hope it helps :-)
hi chris can you learn how to mastering vocal i dont khnow in witch chanell schould i mastering in stereo out or chanell of my vocal
thanks
Hey Chris,
What I do is, once happy with the Mix and Master, I set my left and right locators for the complete export of the audio, let it play through completely for the full song. If I get an Integrated LUFS as - 17, I raise it via a limiter by 3db. This gives me an overall LUFS at - 14, whereas my loudest parts go near upto - 10 to -11 LUFS.
Is this process correct? 🤔
yes, that will work.
Yeah, sure, that works.
Hi, Chris. When I finish a mixing, what should be the best achievement in terms of dBfs, true peak level and d integrated lufs? Chances are that many times when I want to master a song the lufs are already too high... there's no room for mastering. Thank you.
For Mastering how I increase my audio
nice
so what is the green meter marking at when that mine its at -5db toreach -14lufsim mixing metal this is soooo confucing and frustrating when clients wnat it louder and louder but you are way up there and they dont get it
Hi Chris, thanks for all your great advice. One thing I am confused about; with Cubase Pro 11 , using LUFS meter, I get a higher reading say -14 with the LU tab selection than LUFS. Can you clarify please. Ted