Hello friends, please tell me what volume should be adjusted when creating podcasts. Integrated or Max. Short term ?

 

Integrated. Measure the whole podcast and then just make it quieter or louder accordingly. These changes translate 1:1, i.e. if you made your whole podcast quieter by 1 dB, it's now 1 LUFS integrated quieter.

 

You don't ADJUST LUFS, you rather AIM at certain value.
Use -14 integrated (for YouTube).

 

Integrated.
Just use Audacity.
Select whole track -> Effect -> Volume and Compression -> Loudness Normalization -> perceived loudness to

And set Value between -11 to -14 LUFS

- 14 LUFS for Youtube
- 11 LUFS for Soundcloud

What I recommend is to see which value cut your peaks and make it little lover if it cuts them.
For example in many cases I saw value -11 LUFS was cutting the peaks so it better to make it -11.5 LUFS or even -12 LUFS.

Just try it and put -12 LUFS & -14 LUFS on youtube and see what happen.

 

I use Ableton and vst plugins. I've read that platforms like YouTube normalize the data to -14LUFS.
Ok, I'll try to listen to each song and adjust the built-in volume. When to use short terms?

 

For podcast I keep my PLR around 14-16. I normalize the podcast to -18LUFS Integrated. -14 LUFS is way too loud for podcast. AES recommends LUFS-i between -16 and -20 for podcasts.

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2024

There are specific standards in broadcast. Any LUFS metering plugin or standalone, usually has some kind of presets to show specific areas or medium's specs. You should use Integrated.The most important part though isn't just the LUFS but the combination of LUFS and maximum peak permitted . For example if you export for EU broadcast , you have to be -23db LUFS +/- 1db but the true peak can reach up to -1db. The point is that you can play with the loudness range. You might have parts that reach -1db and parts that fall below -30. This is up to you. The more you compress, the less LU range. Typically for a podcast , this wouldn't be an issue , as most of the time , you aim for a less dynamic but solid podcast . Platforms are around -11 to -14 as @Margaret mentioned. On the other hand , when I deliver an episode for broadcast in EU, I have the ability to play with dynamic parts.An action sequence could reach higher levels , and then a dialogue scene falls back low , just to compensate for the program's overall loudness. Loudness might seem odd in the beginning but the more you get used to it , the more you see the freedom to play dynamically and still be within standards. Mastering this ability will make your program competitive .

 

thanks, I read about Peak to Short-Term, but I didn't understand anything, I'll try again))

 

Oops, I mistyped. PLR not PSR.

 

Chose the answer you like most and good luck lololol

 

Really? That's pretty loud. To be honest, I've never uploaded anything there myself, but my specifications from the client were always either -16LUFS /-1TP or -18LUFS /-2TP. Both for stereo. Although the latter is much more common. -11LUFS would even clip the hell out of a lot of music.

 

It's a lottery to be honest. I don't know how soundcloud or youtube meters the audio. But sometimes when you put -14 LUFS it is much quiter than the others tracks. In other hand when you put too loud material Soundcloud or Youtube give "volume penalty" to this track. So it never be too loud. You just loose dynamics. That's why in my opinion mostly you should just be careful about the peaks in the source material to not cut them and experiment with online platforms what working the best for you.
Also as you and others mentioned there are different standards for podcasts and different for songs.
Overall it is -14 for Youtube. -11 for Soundcloud.
But I never worked with podcasts so I don't know. There is no full spectrum in voice only so you could have right and it will be too loud for -11 LUFS.
Just look for some podcasts on youtube or soundcloud and take them as reference. Experiment and you find perfect value for you.

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2024

If it's for youtube don't bother. If you look at the statistics of podcasts in there it's very easy to find videos that have been normalized down by 5 or 7dB (which means they probably were loud af) and sound just fine compared to those who have not been normalized. I'd even dare to say it's more common to find podcasts that are way louder than -14LUFSi, and it's fine.

Don't know how that translates to other platforms that are more music oriented though.

 

Don't get confused with LUFS. if for example your whole program hits -1db at all the time and you get -11LUFS, and you compare it with the exact same program lowered by 10db, you'll get -21LUFS. peaks DO matter. If you export something that sounds good to your ears, then it will translate well even if it gets normalised in the aftermath.

Loudness standards take dialogue into account. This is why you have 2 options when calculating final integrated loudness . Gated or not. This is what tells the equation how to calculate the whole program. Dialogue dependant or not. I don't know though which one does each platform prefers. Before deciding what to use , consider taking into account each platform's specifications

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2024

My EDM stuff goes is between -6.5 to -9 LUFS-I measured at -1dB peak or peak oversampled, true peak output

 

with all this A.i. crap why nobody made an App that fix this analyzing the whole track or podcast etc?... a.i. is focusing on the wrong things.,, not the Useful and practical things..

 

The message of a song is also in its mixing and mastering. I don’t care about YouTube LuFS policy: I aim to whatever volume I feel to

 

I want to join the OP's question if you allow me. I have the issue that a song, which I've left at -14 LUFS in the quiet parts, goes up to -8 LUFS in the louder sections. The song has a lot of dynamics, and I don't want to lose that. So, I'm not sure what to do. I put a song on Spotify, recorded it with the PC audio, and it shows a range from -14 to a maximum of -12.8 LUFS. However, it has very little dynamic range. Anyway, I'm dealing with that as well

 

Measure the whole song's integrated loudness and adjust the gain of the whole song. This way you keep the dynamics

 

I may get shot down for saying this, but it is true after reading the responses.
People in my age bracket can attest to this, 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, podcast, voice-over and/or score for every marketer who could promote it... The greatest global listening mediums were radio, and also the music stores which have all but faded into obscurity with medium changes.

It was right when it was right, then it was mastered, then it was pressed or encoded. There were rules but there were not 27 flavors of variables depending on where it was going to be played. They actually were more than capable of making one master that sounded good everywhere.
Now, people who want anything heard on a major streaming site have to bend over. Do not kid yourself, if you are doing three different versions, -11, -8, -14 as only three examples... then you have bent over. And yes, the joke is on you because in the aforementioned scenario, while they did not have to do 3-7 different LUFS versions for airplay, the engineers, musicians and producers were paid as much as ten times what they are paid now and for WAY less recorded, mixed and mastered work.
As you all were.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 18, 2024