I always master to -2 True Peak -8 LUFS for my music and It still sounds loud and dynamic. It is always good to leave a certain headroom as you don't know the quality of devices listening to your music.

Good insights as always. What is really an absolute true is that this topic doesn't matter much if you did not invest enough time on your composition, sound design, arrangement, etc. Good music first, technical stuff later.

Mixing and mastering legend

Wow. I was really worried and didn't know what levels to master at, if we had to do different levels for each platform or.... thank you! This is a huge relief, thanks to your advice again!

Whenever I become too stressed or worried about my music production abilities or workflow, all it takes for me to get back on track is watching a couple of insightful videos from you. Thank you so much as always!

What a timing for you to drop this video! I was getting extrememly confused about the loudness. Thanks for helping the common crowd so much, Michael!

Man u don't know how much I respect ur tutorials...where were u 10 years ago when Noone didn't want to help teach me shit! Blessings from Toronto!

Sincerely speaking, I really appreciate you a lot Micheal, your tutorials, advise and videos has made a very great impact in my growing process and I'm very sure many producer here have the same experience. Following your footsteps I've also started my own KZfaq channel, building a music production community Thanks In the mix

Thank you for the video. I hope that now is clear for everyone, that mastering for platforms means the peak levels, and not the RMS loudness volume. Well explained. I was arguing on that with some stubborn people, and even now, they didn't get it clear. Good work. Cheers!

Just what was lookin for. Great timing!🙌

Yo Mic, I ain't know what to say, stay blessed 🌟

Great video. Love the extra insights. One thing that was forgotten when dealing with WAV files if bit rate. Example: DistroKid will accept 32bit while CDBaby only accepts 16bit... regardless of where they're pushing the song. Levels are key but your WAV formatting is very specific based on distribution requirements. Keep up the good work! I tell everyone about your channel and it helps a lot of people.

Hey, on point as always. My way about it is that you shouldn't go for the limit left from the "loudness war". Actually no consumer stops a track and says "That is x dB quieter/or louder/ than my expectations and I want more". Mix and master like a consumer. 50 years ago there were very different standards for mixing and limiting and great music was created back then. Thanks for bringing this topic. Expert video as always. Thank you.

Hey Michael, Thanks for this. I always look forward to your posts. So useful, and always interesting! You are one of the few youtubers that I always make sure to check every new video you make. Keep it coming, we really all appreaciate your knowledge, and the way that you explain things. Thanks a lot!

Really appreciate the fact that you make videos on the topics that you do, a lot of your videos cover things that most channels on youtube don't and you've helped me understand a lot of things, keep doin your thing man💪

Your tutorials have to be the best out there , can clearly understand what you mean, music I make is hard dancer music it needs to be loud, mines currently hitting -6.9 lufs , seems to loud that will be then lol

This is incredibly useful👌, thanks Michael

Thanks a lot Micheal. It is indeed a quite confusing topic but the way you explain things it becomes so easier to understand. Take a bow sir!!

What a timing Michael!!! i was worried about the social media thing that you discussed and i had no idea why my music was sounding so bad on insta. YOU SAVED MY LIFE!!!!!

I'm very new to mastering, and this has helped so much! You're a huge inspiration to me. You are one of the main reasons why I want to become a producer! The valuable information you give for free is so helpful, especially for beginners like me! Thanks again!

I always turn off normalization when listening on spotify, which most people don't do. So whenever songs are mastered to i.e. -14 lufs, it's much quieter than other tracks where loudness is just pushed to the max.

I don’t want to be uploading a different master to social medias for promo. If I lower the true peak from -1 to -2, I’ll have to decrease my dynamic range by using a limiter/maximizer, or by normalizing the volume down 1db. It makes much more sense to me to just always have my masters peak at a maximum of -2 for all platforms.

Every advice provide is gold , and is given in a very open minded way. Your really are one of the , if not the, kindest youtuber . The music making gentleman ;-) Because every end of year is the time of awards. I give you the gold medal of the most pleasant and interesting posts to watch. I wish you a high level , dynamic, uncompressed happyness for 2022.

I am grateful for all of your tutorials you have made me a better engineer i study your videos like they are class assignments and I am learning everyday thanks to your insights i am very appreciative

Great advice and to-the-point as always! Love your content, Michael 🔥❤️

Always enjoying these mastering videos! I'm at a point where I don't even really remember how I was ever able to work without Youlean Loudness Meter 2 or Ozone haha. But for what I'm doing, that's more than enough! =D

Im a Professional producer because of you 🔥🔥🔥

This Video Is Really Helpful Rhank You So Much Specially Social Media Part Most Of The Time Insta Reel Audio Quality gets Distorted & Most Of The People Don't Know How To Solve It 👏 Thanks For Helping & Getting This Point 😇

Thank you Michael 🤝

I am a beginner in FL and I've learned many useful tips from this channel. Thank!

Working with ozone really helped me urderstand this video in way I wouldn't some time ago. Thx!!

GREAT VIDEO. THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTIONS. I will be putting them to practical use. Cheers🥂

I never get bored watching your videos you are a great teacher

i think this is the best video on the topic in youtube, well done

Bro I love ur videos , you have a great sense of detail when it comes to giving info , I understand everything !

Thank you for this exalent video !!!

Damn, I was always wondering why songs I streamed on common platforms like Spotify sounded so boosted compared to my final mixes. I never knew that my uploaded songs would get boosted as well. Thanks for this vid! Really helpful!

Nice tip! Now I know how to master in different platforms! Also when is your next sound design tutorial?

Alwayd straight to the point.. Very informative tutorial. Mike never disappoint.

Super helpful video, thanks a lot for the info!

I do doubt if I ever enjoy a teacher like you, I drop mathematics class because of my secondary School teacher 🤣 he confused ordinary adding numbers. I will be a great producer some day because of you thanks much❤️

Thanks for that

these are crazy helpful

I really love all your videos. Thanks for sharing this useful information with us. Greetings from Peru!

Great video explanation, have a song i am mastering currently and have always had trouble with this topic. Thank you.

You are a living legend kind sir! Thanks for the help

I've always have wonderd about this, I'm glad Micheal did a video on this.

Great vid, was curious about this topic and you delivered the answers, thanks!

This channel is gold! Thank you mate

I was thinking about this yesterday and boom! Thnkz Michael

Another amazing video! Your videos are so awesome. Thanks for sharing your knowledge about music.

❤️Love u vro

Thank you sir

When a song is quiet I turn the volume up, when it's badly compressed with no dynamics I skip it.

one of the best youtube content out there thank you

Interesting video even before I started.

Thank you bro! Really needed this video

Very helpful. Thank you sir. Much appreciated and just in time!

It's rly a great information for me My tiktok and instagram reels videos tend to have worst quality sound than KZfaq even though I put the peak at - 1Dp. Hope this - 2Dp tip will fix that up Thanks for the info

Great video man. Helped me a lot. Keep it going ❤️

Thank you, super helpful.

Thank you, great and helpful content as Always

Thnx for the video sir hope you are doing well....can you do a video on Fruity Love Filter? It would mean a lot

Very interesting thanks for this! I’m trying to make something promotional for a sci-fi themed game and was trying to push it to “survive” on the social media platforms; second thoughts now of course. Thanks for the advice man 👌🏻🤓

Very helpful! Thanks for the amazing video!

Such good info, thank you for this!

lovely vid thanks!

I’ve always loved your videos. They are very educational. Can you please guide us how to calibrate studio monitors properly? Thank you.

Always great! I had released a single and put the preview on my Instagram and yes it definitely clipped on there. So Thank you for bringing that up! Good stuff!

Very informative! If I'm selling on Bandcamp, can I go lower with true peak? Down to -0.1, as they are purchasing the FLAC?

You my friend, are a life saver :)

I've been trying to figure this out for a while now and I can't seem to get it. I manage to get it to average 14lufs and been striving to keep it under that -1db True Peak, but it still doesn't sound as loud as other records and it's been frustrating me to no end. How do you hit it that loud while sticking to these numbers?? I've heard that the average mastering engineer goes WAAAY past this and yet they still sound good.

Thank You Bro🙌🙌Very Helpful Video🔥🔥.

This was really helpful thanks Mike 💪

Great informative video. At 2:22 you mention True Peak in conjunction with the term "Ceiling". Thus, is this the same as what Apple refers to as "Out Ceiling" in Logic's Adaptive Limiter? Secondly, in many mastering videos, I am seeing the Out Ceiling set to -0.3 dB, rather than -1.0 that you are recommending. As of 2024, are you still recommending this number? I realize recommendations can change over time as we are seeing with the LUFS for various genres of music.

Thanks for all your videos

Current streaming services are doing it wrong, as I bet you 'secretly' opine. I think normalization applied should be in terms of turn up the volume and not lowering it down. Am I wrong?

Спасибо. tiktok, of course, cuts music strongly, I will try different methods, but KZfaq is certainly loyal to the sound and transfers it better than others. I haven’t thought much about this problem yet, but it’s already necessary)

Brilliantly explained thank you 🙏

very helpful and informational as always

Love the content as always. I have an idea that might interest you. How about you create an instagram post with a song of yours at -2db TP and with -0.5db TP for the viewers to tell the difference. And maybe even on streaming platforms like Spotify by uploading same song with recommend average loudness and low average loudness(like -20LUFS).

Thank you so much

Thank u 😇❤️

Michael is so 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥✅

Why commercial masters tend to be much higher than -12LUFS? Thank you 🙏🏻

Can you make some tutorial on professional mastering like skrillex do - 3/-4 Lufs level🙂

Thanks for Sharing your know how with us

Great stuff, as always. Out of curiosity, how does this translate to other media? I assume for CD of Vinyl you´d have different masters, right?

Thanks you for all these knowledge

Mastered

Thank you so much !

Excellent, but... what levels for CD's? I do rock, and when a new Joe Bonamassa come out (or something similar), I check their levels, to see where they are. Now all CDs I buy I make my own FLAC files, and these I usually play. CD's are so much louder than streaming. Is my conclusion correct that you would do a third master for CD production? Thx, great vid, as always.

I agree wholeheartedly with most of the video, however the -12 to -16 luFS goal seems rather conservative to me - a good mix will be that volume or louder without anything on the master in my experience, and even just putting a loudmax instance on it can easily get you to -12 to -10.

Does KZfaq count as social media or streaming service? Genuine question

Should you have a seperate master for playing it live? As a dj And should that master be as loud as possible?

If you're making electronic music go for -6 LUFS I would say

Hello! I just watched your newer video in which you said the loudness wars were over and loud won. Would you still advice keeping a true peak of -1 or below for the master (for Spotify, Apple,etc)?

My thoughts about loadness for mastering. Use your ears and make a master that sounds as good as possible and make it as load as you possible can. How much you should compress and if you should use a limiter at the end of the master chain really depends on genre (the more you use compression and limiting, the loader the master can be). I recently remastered a recording I made in 2001. I just used my ears and made an analysis after the mastering was done, it ended up around -9 to -10 LUFS, which somehow is the "normal" level for a rock/hardrock record. Jazz is lower, metal is higher, but the important thing is to be in se same ballpark as your competitors. The band Fata Morgana is not a metal band so I think I did it right. Feel free to listen (just click on me). If you like guitar-driven hardrock with more complex arrangements but still melodic, you should defenetely listen. Remember, your ears are going to tell you whats right. not numbers! // Peter, guitarist in Fata Morgana

Hey Thanks for all the great knowledge you put out there, I would like to know what's is the recommended loudness level for an audio to be submitted to radio and what formats, and sample rates

You know your stuff mate thank you for all the work you do it has helped so many new artists starting out in sound production. Its one thing to know how to play an instrument but its a totally different game when you have to make that instrument or more all sound good as when you first played them. Thanks mate