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Making tracks louder than -14 LUFS (using Spotify for example) accomplishes nothing other than destroying dynamic range and squashing the track. What does SoundCloud do to my music and why? Unlike other streaming services, SoundCloud does not apply loudness normalization to your tracks. The recommended LUFS target for mastering is -18lufs (for spotify) as anything louder will just be turned down. So, in theory there is no point in heavily compressing/limiting our songs. To coincide with this, a quieter track (perhaps a reading of -21 LUFS) will get turned up.
First it was Spotify, then Apple, then YouTube – now TIDAL are implementing loudness management, or “normalisation”, to give a better user experience, stopping us from being “blasted” by level changes between songs.
If you’re a regular reader you’ll know why this is a big deal already – if not, click here to get up to speed quickly. In this post I’ll just cover what’s interesting and different about TIDAL’s loudness management system. As always, the devil is in the details.
TIDAL uses LUFS
Finally ! The ITU’s international standard method of measuring loudness, “Loudness Units Full Scale”, or LUFS, has been agreed for years, but none of the music streaming platforms have actually been using it – until now.
TIDAL are using LUFS, and have released clear information about their chosen playback levels. Over AirPlay, normalisation will be at -18 LUFS, whereas on mobile devices and broswers, all music will be initially be played back at an integrated loudness of -14 LUFS.
This is great news, since in my experience the LUFS meaurement is easily the most reliable way of measuring loudness, and most closely matches what my ears tell me.
Sadly TIDAL’s chosen level of -14 LUFS is still louder than the recommended -16 LUFS maximum specified in the AES guidelines for streaming loudness that I helped draft, but it’s a little better than YouTube’s estimated -13 LUFS level, and far better than Spotify’s level of approximately -11 LUFS.
So far, so good. But…
Quiet songs WON’T be turned up
[Update – recent testing shows that this is now the case on YouTube, too]
This is an unexpected curve-ball. All the loudness normalisation services turn louder songs down to their reference level, to stop you being blasted by a song at very high level following just after a quieter one – but some also turn quieter songs up, too – provided it doesn’t cause clipping, a least. TIDAL doesn’t do that.
At first sight this doesn’t seem like a huge deal – most songs are mastered with a higher integrated loudness than -14 LUFS these days anyway, so are unlikely to need turning up.
There are cases where you need to be careful, though – for example if you’re used to supplying music for use in broadcast, which requires you to maintain an overall -23 LUFS integrated loudness. On some services I’ve tested, songs like this will be turned up, provided it doesn’t cause clipping (although Spotify uses a limiter.) TIDAL won’t do that, so music supplied at a broadcast level like this would sound very quiet in comparison to everything else.
Having said that, since one of TIDAL’s biggest selling-points is CD-quality streaming, this may not be such a big deal – whereas YouTube recieves lots of video content which may be already optimised for broadcast, most TIDAL material will come from a CD master or higher quality file, which is likely to be at a higher level already. On YouTube though, this is something you need to take into consideration.
Lower-level music releases may be affected by this detail too, though. And if you choose to deliberately master your music at a lower level, it will sound quieter than the loudest material on the servcie – but if you make that choice, the chances are that’s exactly how you’d like it.
Normalisation can be disabled, but not in browsers
Finally, TIDAL allows users to toggle normalisation on and off in the settings – on iOS and Android, at any rate. In browsers the option seems to be permanently on – just as with YouTube and Pandora.
Conclusion
TIDAL’s implementation of loudness normalisation can only be a good thing. It gives us a better user-experience, and it allows artists and engineers to master their music with the dynamics that work best, without having to worry about “competing” in the loudness war.
And their choice to use the LUFS measurement system is very wise, in my opinion – hopefully other services will follow suit soon. Their choice of yet another different reference level is confusing for people who want to optimise dynamics for streaming, though – which service do you prioritise ? Or do you upload different masters for each service? Hopefully in future all streaming services will adopt the AES recommendation of -16 LUFS max – if you’d like to encourage them, please click here to sign our petition !
And in the meantime, you can measure the peak to loudness ratio (PLR) of your music to assess how it’s loudness will be treated online with any LUFS loudness meter – or my Dynameter plugin, which offers presets to help with exactly that.
![Spotify Spotify](/uploads/1/3/4/0/134071282/824821128.jpg)
Can You Download Off Spotify
Coda: But what about SoundCloud ?
More and more people have been asking me recently about loudness normalisation on SoundCloud, which is where many of you release your music.
The bad news is – there’s no loudness normalisation at all there, yet.
BUT
Como desativar musicas sujeridas no spotify free. The price quoted for this is a lifetime license price yet license offered here is only a 1 year extended trial license that they do not sell.
I’ve been in contact with SoundCloud’s support team, who have said I can quote them as saying that normalisation is “on the list”. It’s not at the top, right now – but that may change. Let’s just hope that when it happens, they implement not only loudness management on SoundCloud, but the AES’s recomended maximum reference level of -16 LUFS, too.
How loud a mix should be is definitely a debated topic. Searching for the answer leads to multiple answers, each using different tools for measurement.
But perhaps, to best answer to this question, it helps to think from the perspective of a mastering engineer.
Mastering has always been a way for records to compete with one another sonically. It started when record labels discovered that if they boosted 3kHz on their records, it would sound better on radio, and in turn people would enjoy these records more.
A lot has certainly changed since then, but what remains the same is that idea – the idea that there is a way to make a record sound better, and in turn, make it more enjoyable for the listener.
With this in mind, a lot of mixing and mastering engineers have used perceived loudness as a way to accomplish this.
How Loud is Too Loud?
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To answer this question, we need to look into the popular platforms for distribution of today.
These include, but certainly aren’t limited to Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Soundcloud, and Tidal. Each of these online platforms implement a process known as ‘Normalization.’ Normalization ensures that all songs playback as the same, or very similar levels on their platform.
Take a look at this chart.
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Notice that Spotify not only alters your song’s volume, it offers different options to their listeners. Also notice that Spotify’s loudest setting, plays the track at -11dB LUFS.
In order to accomplish this, Spotify will turn down the overall volume of your song. This varies based on whatever setting the listener has selected.
For example, if a track was mastered at -10dB LUFS, its loudness will be truncated to comply with Spotify’s normalization settings.
This means there is are few reasons why a master should be louder than these settings.
Most Mixes Are Too Loud
With the availability of limiters, and a fair amount of sources influencing mixing engineers to use them, mixes are often sent off for mastering at levels that are far too loud.
In fact, a fair amount of mixes are louder than the afore mentioned Spotify settings.
So what does this mean for my mix and master?
Essentially, your mastering engineer is going to have to turn your mix down before mastering. This leads to a less dynamic master if limiting was involved. How much data does spotify use to download a playlist.
At What Volume Should I Mix?
This brings us back to our original question.
So long as your mixes give the mastering engineer room to work, and cover your noise floor, then you’re in a good range.
I recommend mixing at -23 dB LUFS, or having your peaks be between -18dB and -3dB. This will allow the mastering engineer the opportunity to process your song, without having to resort to turning it down.
Conclusion:
Next time you’re curious about how loud your mix should be, think about it from the prospective of a mastering engineer. Give them room to work on your mix. The end result will be more dynamic, spacious, and comply with normalization standards, using minimal volume truncation.
![Can you download off spotify Can you download off spotify](https://itstommynutter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/LOUDNESS.png)
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