Levels and Loudness Metering (RMS, LUFS and True Peak)
Summary
TLDRIn this informative tutorial, Sean Devine delves into the intricacies of audio metering, focusing on the two primary standards: RMS and LUFS. He explains that RMS, or root-mean-square, measures short-term average levels, while LUFS, or Loudness Units Full Scale, gauges perceived loudness, accounting for the varying sensitivity of human hearing to different frequencies. Devine emphasizes the importance of using all three metering tools—True Peak, RMS, and LUFS—for optimal audio quality and compliance with digital platforms' standards, particularly as the music industry shifts towards standardized loudness levels.
Takeaways
- 🎵 Sean Devine's tutorial discusses metering standards, focusing on RMS and LUFS.
- 📊 RMS (Root Mean Square) measures a short-term average level, providing a perceived loudness measurement.
- 🔊 LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is a newer standard for measuring perceived loudness, taking into account how humans perceive sound differently across frequencies.
- 🌐 LUFS has been widely adopted in digital music platforms and streaming services, with Spotify's standard being -14 LUFS.
- 📈 The difference between RMS and LUFS is that RMS measures level while LUFS measures perceived loudness.
- 🎚️ Momentary, Short-term, Integrated, and Loudness Range are different measurements within LUFS, each capturing different aspects of audio levels.
- 🔔 True Peak is another important metering tool that measures the loudest point in a mix or master, crucial for avoiding clipping or distortion.
- 🎧 Sean Devine recommends using a combination of True Peak, RMS, and LUFS for the best audio quality and to meet platform standards.
- 📝 For mixing and mastering, LUFS is particularly important, especially for delivery to digital platforms.
- 📌 RMS remains useful for quick level checks and is familiar to many engineers.
- 🚀 The next video will delve deeper into delivering music with target LUFS and RMS for optimal performance on digital platforms.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Sean Devine's tutorial?
-The main topic of the tutorial is metering, specifically discussing RMS and LUFS, and their roles in digital music platforms.
What does LUFS stand for?
-LUFS stands for Loudness Units Full Scale, which is a newer standard for measuring perceived loudness in audio.
What is the difference between RMS and LUFS?
-RMS (Root Mean Square) measures a short-term average of audio level, while LUFS measures perceived loudness, taking into account how the human ear perceives different frequencies.
What is the significance of True Peak in metering?
-True Peak is an important metering tool that measures the loudest point in a mix or master, accounting for the translation from digital to analog, and helps prevent clipping or distortion.
What is the recommended LUFS standard for Spotify?
-Spotify's integrated LUFS standard is -14 LUFS.
What does the acronym 'M' in the context of LUFS measurements stand for?
-In LUFS measurements, 'M' stands for Momentary, which refers to the LUFS reading at a specific moment in time.
What is the purpose of the 'Integrated' LUFS measurement?
-The 'Integrated' LUFS measurement takes into account the loudness over the entire duration of the audio signal, providing a cumulative loudness value for the entire piece.
Why is it important to consider both RMS and LUFS when mixing and mastering?
-RMS is useful for judging signal levels and monitor loudness, while LUFS is important for achieving a consistent perceived loudness across digital platforms, meeting the standards required by streaming services.
How does Sean Devine suggest using RMS, LUFS, and True Peak in a mixing and mastering workflow?
-Sean Devine suggests using a combination of all three metering tools to ensure optimal signal levels, meet loudness standards, and prevent clipping or distortion.
What will be covered in the next video by Sean Devine?
-In the next video, Sean Devine will discuss in more depth how to deliver music with a target LUFS and RMS that will work well on digital platforms and streaming services.
Outlines
🎤 Introduction to Metering Standards
Sean Devine introduces the topic of metering standards, focusing on LUFS and RMS. He explains that LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is becoming the new industry standard, especially for digital music platforms, while RMS (Root Mean Square) is still widely used. The video aims to clarify the meanings of these terms, what they measure, and when to use each one. Sean also mentions the importance of True Peak metering, which measures the loudest point in a mix or master to prevent clipping or distortion.
📊 Understanding RMS and LUFS
The video delves into the specifics of RMS and LUFS. RMS measures a short-term average level, providing a more accurate representation of perceived loudness than peak measurements. LUFS, on the other hand, accounts for the way human ears perceive different frequencies, making it a more comprehensive tool for measuring loudness. Sean discusses the different measurements within LUFS, including Momentary, Short-term, Integrated, and Loudness Range, and emphasizes the importance of Integrated LUFS for music delivery on digital platforms, such as Spotify's standard of -14 LUFS.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Metering
💡LUFS
💡RMS
💡True Peak
💡Perceived Loudness
💡Integrated LUFS
💡Digital Music Platforms
💡Loudness Wars
💡Signal Levels
💡Master Bus
💡Post-Production Facility
Highlights
Sean Devine introduces a tutorial on metering, focusing on LUFS and RMS standards.
LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is becoming the new standard in digital music platforms.
RMS (Root Mean Square) is an older metering standard still in use for measuring level.
True Peak is an important metering tool for measuring the loudest point in a mix or master, accounting for digital to analog translation.
RMS measures a short-term average of level, providing a more accurate perceived loudness measurement.
LUFS measures perceived loudness, taking into account how frequencies are perceived differently by human ears.
LUFS has been used in broadcast television and film, and is now being adopted in the music industry.
Streaming platforms like Spotify have integrated LUFS standards, with a target of -14 LUFS.
LUFS measurements include Momentary, Short-term, Loudness Range, and Integrated.
Integrated LUFS is the standard for music, measuring the entire song's perceived loudness.
Sean Devine suggests using a combination of True Peak, RMS, and LUFS for optimal results.
RMS is useful for judging signal levels and monitor loudness, despite not being as accurate for perceived loudness.
True Peak is crucial to avoid clipping or distortion on the master bus, as some platforms penalize this.
The video aims to explain how to use metering tools, their meanings, and the differences between RMS and LUFS.
Upcoming videos will delve into delivering music with target LUFS and RMS for digital platforms and streaming services.
The video encourages viewers to comment, like, subscribe, and share if they found it informative.
Transcripts
Hey, what's going on out there? I'm Sean Devine. Hope you all are doing well today
I've got a new tutorial where we're going to talk about metering
We have got a couple of different standards, different metering types, that many of you have questions about
Particularly this new standard that's been implemented into a lot of our digital music platform streaming platforms
It's called LUFS
now you're probably familiar with the older metering which is RMS
And that's one that I use a lot on the channel. I still use it
It's still very useful, but LUFS has become more of the new standard
so we're going to talk about both of these we're gonna talk about what RMS and LUFS actually mean, what they're measuring and
then, which one you should use.
So also don't forget about true peak true. Peak is another very important
Metering tool this is just measuring the loudest point a peak in
your mix or master of your song and it takes into account the
translation from the digital world to the analog world so it's going to be true peak versus just a peak reading and
That's gonna keep you from clipping or distorting on the bus, so let's jump in and let's first talk about
What RMS and LUFS actually stand for?
RMS is root-mean-square, and LUFS is Loudness Units Full Scale
So you don't have to memorize that it's not that important
But if you were curious about what the initials stand for that's that but first let's talk about RMS briefly.
I'm gonna press play, and if you want to just keep an eye on our RMS reading over here
And then we'll talk about what's actually being measured.
All right, so we've got a reading over here of minus eight RMS.
I want to point out also that the level meter
Which is this one –
That's measuring true peak and RMS and our loudness meter
Which is measuring LUFS are the last plug in in our stereo bus or a master bus after our
limiting and mastering processing which is in this case ozone.
So this is measuring the the absolute level after all this stuff is happening and what the actual
loudness and level is going to be when it leaves the D aw so just pointing that out make sure and put those last if
you're measuring it in this way, but let's go back over here, and we've got the minus eight RMS
So what RMS is is its measuring level, but it's measuring a short term average
So whereas the true peak is just gonna measure the absolute
loudest point in the signal rms is taking into account a
short-term measurement, and it's averaging that together
so it's a little bit more accurate and it's gonna give you a little bit more of a perceived loudness sort of measurement although we're
Still talking about strictly level and not loudness
Which we're about to get to you're an LUFS. LUFS is a newer standard
that has been being used in the broadcast television film world
It's something that we had to follow much more closely when I was working in a post-production facility
We were delivering our projects
They had to be within a certain LUFS range
Or have an integrated LUFS figure that matched the standards. So now in the music world
We've been without a quote standard for level and loudness and that is slowly changing
Because they have been wanting to have more consistency after we started getting into the loudness Wars
Where everybody was just trying to make their music super super loud the streaming platforms the digital platforms are said whoa,
whoa, whoa. That's enough
We need a standard and so they've adopted the LUFS and there are some integrated LUFS numbers
Now you hear stuff like Spotify. They're integrated
LUFS standard is minus 14. All right, so what is the LU in LUFS?
What's a loudness unit all you need to remember is that is the it is the equivalent of one decibel?
LUFS is measuring
perceived loudness, so it's different than the decibels that are being read by RMS, so let's talk about the difference between
LUFS and RMS
So where as RMS is only measuring that short term average of level LUFS is
measuring many different things here, and it's doing it in a way that is measuring perceived loudness so our ears hear
loudness in certain ways because
Frequencies can actually be perceived louder than others for instance mid frequencies tend to jump out of speakers
And they tend to present themselves more obviously to the human ear so LUFS takes that sort of thing into account and then
We have some different measurements here, so if you look up here
I'm gonna press play again
And just keep an eye an eye on this "M" the "S" the "I", then the LU range
And then the "I" again, this is the same reading, that's up there. It's called Integrated
Okay, so let's talk about what those were measuring up here the M stands for Momentary
Which is just at that very moment? What is the LUFS reading at that point?
So that's going to be closer to our RMS reading
They are gonna differ a little bit, but then the the "S" is Short-term
So that's gonna be more of a short-term measurement and it averages those together
The LU range is just referring to the difference in the
quietest points of the the signal that's being fed in here and the loudest point and it's referring to it in terms of an
LU or Loudness Unit. And then the "I" is
Integrated. The Integrated is taking into account
the loudness
over the entire span of us playing or feeding the signal through it. So when I press play and stop that entire
segment is being taken it into account to calculate the integrated LUFS.
The integrated is the one that you're seeing as the standard for music because it's measuring the entire song's
Integrated LUFS. So if you see minus 14 that is referring to the Integrated in terms of Spotify standard,
that's the one that you want to focus on. So what should you use? Should you use True Peak, RMS or LUFS?
My personal suggestion is a combination of all three. RMS,
it's not as accurate in terms of perceived loudness obviously.
And I think it's very important that you do want to start getting comfortable
I'm using LUFS a lot more because it's becoming the standard. So I need to be aware of where I want to deliver my
sessions for clients in terms of the integrated LUFS, especially to the digital platforms. That's very important for
using in your overall mix and masters: LUFS.
But then RMS is still very useful for just judging you know signal levels of say your microphone or maybe you want to
measure the loudness of your monitors. It's just something that I'm very comfortable with I think a lot of engineers –
We've been using it for so long that I can just look up and see an RMS number
and I know kind of what I'm going for and it's just a very quick reference point for level.
True peak is very important because we don't want to clip or distort our master buss or go above zero with True Peak
because some of the platforms will actually penalize you. We're gonna talk more about that but in this video
I really just wanted to point out
how to use these metering tools what they mean, what they stand for, and then what the difference is just
generally speaking between RMS and LUFS. So be sure to stay tuned for the next video. We're going to
talk more in depth about how to deliver your music with a target LUFS and RMS. That's going to work
well on the digital platforms and streaming services.
If you have any questions or comments about True Peak, RMS or LUFS, or the differences between these,
feel free to leave a comment below. If you learned anything in the video
Please like subscribe and consider sharing and we'll talk to you soon.
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