Levels and Loudness Metering (RMS, LUFS and True Peak)

Summary

In 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

00:00

🎤 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.

05:05

📊 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.

Keywords

💡Metering

Metering refers to the process of measuring audio levels to ensure proper balance and loudness in a mix or master. In the video, metering is crucial for achieving consistency across digital music platforms, as it helps avoid distortion and ensures the audio meets platform standards.

💡LUFS

LUFS stands for Loudness Units Full Scale and is a relatively new standard for measuring perceived loudness in audio. It takes into account how the human ear perceives different frequencies, making it more accurate for representing how we hear sound.

💡RMS

RMS, or Root Mean Square, is an older metering standard that measures the short-term average level of an audio signal. While it's still useful, it doesn't account for the way our ears perceive sound as LUFS does.

💡True Peak

True Peak is a metering tool that measures the loudest point in a mix or master, considering the translation from digital to analog. It's important for preventing clipping or distortion, which can occur if the audio goes above a certain threshold.

💡Perceived Loudness

Perceived loudness is how humans interpret the volume of sound, which can vary depending on the frequency content. LUFS is designed to measure this perception, making it a more accurate representation of what we hear.

💡Integrated LUFS

Integrated LUFS is a measurement that takes into account the entire duration of an audio signal, providing an average loudness level over time. This is the standard used by many digital platforms for music delivery.

💡Digital Music Platforms

These are online services that stream music, such as Spotify, Apple Music, and others. They have adopted LUFS as a standard to ensure consistent loudness across the music they host.

💡Loudness Wars

The Loudness Wars refer to the trend in the music industry where producers try to make their music as loud as possible, often at the expense of dynamic range and audio quality.

💡Signal Levels

Signal levels are the amplitude of an audio signal, which can be measured in decibels. They are important for ensuring that audio equipment does not overload and for achieving a balanced mix.

💡Master Bus

The master bus is the final output channel in a mixing console or digital audio workstation. All other audio tracks are typically summed to the master bus before being sent to the final output.

💡Post-Production Facility

A post-production facility is a place where the finishing stages of film, video, or music production take place, such as editing, mixing, and mastering.

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.