Well, not exactly. Lets assume that you reach -8 for a certain period and not just some random peaks, yes this would be the equation. The easiest way is to use a meter. There are many out there and they also display the loudness range. Waves WLM , Nugen Audio's Master check , Izotope's Insight and more.

You basically don't. It's more like a reference to you. Short term measures the loudness of a 3 second period. So it's more like an average to show you where you 're heading.

 

The things is the 'some tracks' you mention are now classics like Stairway to Heaven, Beatles tracks, Rolling Stones, Heart, Benatar, Aretha Franklin, most of the Motown collections, Coltrane, Parker and nearly everything that the current music industry still is yet to produce music that is half as strong in its writing and composition quality. I doubt people would choose perfect technical specifications over great tunes.

This is the point with normalizing on or off. everything sounds the same. GREAT MUSIC does not sound the same and has light and shade.
In music there are two types of dynamics as against engineering dynamics. Music dynamics are natural volume and natural intensity. Current music is completely lacking in this for the greater part because nearly everything has the shit compressed out of it where people may as well not use real musicians.

There are some people out on YouTube that should not be allowed anywhere near a limiter. @Ryck @Lad Impala - There is a very good reason why the term "transparent" is used in limiting and compression. It is so simple. Listen to the dry untainted track recorded by real musicians. Then listen to the same track post-compression and post-limiting. If it sounds and feels the same without the track surging, pumping and squashing and the light and shade is intact, but the levels are even then it's probably right. A large majority of Radio stations in the 90s and early 2000s before becoming the way they are now, used an Aphex Compellor to do their program volume limiting. While it is nothing fancy by today's vst offerings, it still has not been closely replicated in vst (nowhere near IMO). It is still to this day purchaseable and if used correctly, you do not notice it is on. The funny thing is it can be used transparently and easily to meet the current multitude of LUFS standards, but it's not.

 

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i wouldnt worry about LUFS, as long as it sounds good and you think its loud enough

it doesnt actually matter, theres not a universal program that has an absolute LUFS value, across all meters to follow anyways: every meter tracks LUFS differently. if you were sequencing a project, you want there to be changes in level, its part of the flow in sequencing an LP, EP, comp, whatever - people arent matching the LUFS of every track on a project. people can/will also turn volume up or down to where they want it, no matter what you get the LUFS too - that includes listeners and DJ's, film editors, etc.

so i woudnt trip, just focus on it sounding good. if you have to know, follow integrated but i wouldnt stress it

 

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I love it when a dude asks how to approach broadcast standards for their podcast and in the comments we get this.
Well, at least they got their answer. Doesn't happen every time.

 

I read a few posts

 

if the audio tracks have a different PLR, I need to change the dynamic range with the compressor?

 

Nope. This is just a matter of taste. It's up to you. If it sounds good to your ears. If you just need to be technically accurate, then go for a compressor. Maybe APU loudness compressor helps on this, but i wouldn't recommend being too technical. After all , what we perceive with our ears and soul matters.

 

It has to be said, that - while streaming platforms impose LUFS standards - there is still no loudness standard for CDs. (Yeah, I know - who buys CDs these days...?) So I measured a very well sounding and dynamic recording from a CD album released a year ago, and the integrated LUFS is -10.
So not as loud as it used to be 10 years ago (when songs were mastered to -6 LUFS, although no-one measured it then), but still louder than YouTube/Spotify recommendation.
So LUFS-I -10 is my current guideline for music mixes/masters.

 

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Most likely too quiet for EDM and too loud for Jazz, while the question here was about podcasts...

 

You can always check Youtube audio level by pressing right mouse button and clicking "stats for nerds". Very helpful.

 

Yup. I already posted an answer specifically relating to podcasts at the very beginning of this thread.

That's why I used the word GUIDELINE. Some songs need to be mastered to higher LUFS, some "ballads" to lower, to be perceived as equal loudness.
As of the original question, I posted already my answer at the beginning of this thread (I don't do postcasts, but I do some video spots for YT, with the character kinda similar to podcasts). But this thread later drifted away from the original question.

 

Last evening I took a closer look at some measurements from podcasts on youtube. On average, these values are somewhere in the following range:

+0 dBTP / -16.5 LUFS-I
-1 dBTP / -17 LUFS-I
-0.4 dBTP / -18.9 LUFS-I

Of course, there are also some outliers that come in at a brutal -13.7 LUFS-I / +0.1 dBTP, but most are in the above range.

My last podcast project has -2.9 dBTP / -18 LUFS-I.
So slight tendency towards the hot side, but the speakers were also damn good and consistent.


Hope that helps.

 

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@BaSsDuDe .. As it is true from an earlier post of your's that back in the day mixers and mastering engineers didn't have to aim at different lufs numbers for varied platforms as is the norm today..."there actually was a time when the global musical creators, performers, engineers and producers were not dictated to by any entity demanding that they have to tailor multiple versions of the same song/composition"...however, there actually was. For many songs there were both album and single mixes, radio pretty much demanding shorter, abridged versions with a different arrangement of the same song. Lots of times I remember guitar leads either shortened or cut from the radio version. One song that sticks in my mind that changed how long a song on the radio could be was Paul McCartney's song Uncle Albert from his Ram album. It ran for almost 5 minutes and it was an outlier for it's time in 1971.

But I digress...

 

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Guys, the whole point of normalization is that you don't have to aim at different loudnesses for different mediums, as with CD/Vinyl era. The platform will do it for you.
The way normalization works, target loudness of -14 LUFS integrated means that your mix should not be quieter than -14 LUFS, assuming it hits close to 0 dBFS true peak. Cause otherwise the system will lower its volume further. It's effectively a restriction on dynamic range, not loudness. Aiming at -8 LUFS with -0.2 dBTP would cover every platform with every lossy format and then some.

 

What's a podcast?

 

That is not true!

YouTube intervenes, for example, if the material is louder than -14 LUFS.
Then the material is normalized down to -14 LUFS. Material that is quieter than -14 LUFS is not adjusted.
The idea is to regulate content that is too loud, not to force people to produce loud content!

Podcasts should not be so loud, because 1 hour of podcast at -14 LUFS is damn tiring and exhausting. That's why the AES also recommends that the volume of conversations should be at least 2 LU lower than that of music, in this case -16 LUFS. However, -18 LUFS is definitely more pleasant in the long term. Some even prefer -20 LUFS or more, approaching broadcast loudness standards.

And if you look at the measurements in my last post (or the YT stats), you will also see that many podcasters use this as a guide. The stats for many podcasts show that they are around 2-4 LU quieter than the -14 LUFS recommended by YouTube for music.

I took a quick look at Soundcloud and the results there look similar. For example, Bertelsmann Podcast Annual Press Conference 2019 is at -20.2 LUFS-I / -4.3 dBTP.

-8 LUFS / 0.2 dBTP is just sheer madness for a podcast.

 

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Here you go. Some more info on LUFS and streaming.

Not exactly much info on loudness but here you can see some of the plugins he uses
This guy has many videos around the topic. Check his other videos for more info

 

You don't seem to understand what I'm saying.
Again, I should add.

For others - that's exactly the point.
And yeah, it's for music, not for podcasts.

 

During volume automation. To keep the perceived levels of the speakers consistent, the short term should be in the range of ~ 5 or 6 LU.

 

Ok, but i thought we were talking about the masters not the compositions. These artists would still be great artists, even if they got a louder/quieter master...
and i personally think we still have great talented musicians, you just gotta know where to look for....

although the music industry is not focused on compositions anymore. is more like sound design e production techniques that make a track stand out nowadays