Have a question for Jonathan? Reply below and we’ll address it in a future episode of Are You Listening!

I master professionally and also have worked along side other top grammy-winning mastering engineers. NONE of them master at -14. You just need to make your master sound awesome and competitive. That usually means between -7 and -10 LUFS depending on the the artist and genre. In my experience -8 LUFS is really a sweet spot IF you can get there intelligently. Intelligently usually means using a combination of high quality saturation, light compression, EQ, selective peak editing, gentle stages of limiting, and discreet multi band compression or dynamic eq. Give yourself a little breathing room for the peaks...Around -0.5 on the output works just fine. One of the top mastering guys I have worked with outputs at 0.0 and told me he NEVER goes below -0.3 on the output setting. Once your master sounds amazing, print and send to the client. It will sound amazing everywhere. If not, that's someone else's fault.

I've actually experimented with loudness on streaming services particularly Spotify. I released two tracks one mastered at -14 LUFS and other at -9 LUFS and I found that the -14 LUFS track DID NOT get through normalisation and sounded very soft in comparison to the second track. Whereas the -9 LUFS was slightly normalised but still sounded great! So if you're going -14 or -12 it is probably NOT going to sound good or loud!

Cant get enough of this show!! Bring on the knowledge Johnathan!

Man this guy is a good dude. Respects the music first and foremost. Making a record is not always an exact science! Thanks for the video, bud.

Another great, well explained video.. Thanks for doing these, sure helps out with the struggle of loudness...mostly being consistant with other completed mixes.

Love that they used the White Reaper tune as the audio!

9:22 Thanks Jonathan, this is very well put!

This is the one video I have been waiting for!

Thanks for the great and easy to understand explanation...cheers

Wow, this is fantastic information Jonathan. Thank you so much for doing this.

Thanks for the video. What about a video to cover why and when you would use a dynamic EQ over a multiband compressor? The pro's and con's of each situation? Cheers

I think what would benefit a lot of folks is you to take songs you have mastered from different genres and show them using insight 2. Explain what your fundamental thinking was for your level and treatment. That way we're not talking about general recommendations for levels etc. but a process that would certainly help a lot of us. What caused one tune to be "louder" than another...what was your general thinking on how much to limit or compress certain styles of songs...

Thank you so much for these videos!

Great video!

Amazing presentation And comments

love these classes

Hello Jonathan, great series of tutorials. We all appreciate the clear instructions and well-organized thought process behind everything you say. My question is: I am really struggling with getting good competitive results during "mastering" for tracks that are utilizing a lot of not "so great" virtual instruments. I do understand what's going on here and the nature of the problem (sound source), but does your approach to low end treatment change between virtual instruments vs actual acoustic instrument recordings? Also, in this kind of scenarios how to you talk to the client and make them understand that there are limitations to what you can actually improve? Looking for emotional, physical, and technical points of view if you could please take a moment to share your thoughts on the point of discussion. Thanks in advance and all the best, Ioannis

I love this show

This is awesome!

I've noticed a trend in loudness and mastering for different genres, and I'm curious if you could dive into the topic more. The traditional role of a mastering engineer is to be transparent and do no harm, eg: when the ME has done their job well, you (or the audience) won't "know we exist". However, with the rise of EDM I'm especially noticing the desire of edm artists and producers treating mastering as a final sound design/mixing element. I've noticed this particular approach bleed into other genres like post-rock and metal with certain acts/groups, and am curious what your take is on this newer approach (though I can point back to records as far back as the late 90's that were pushing loudness practices that were utilizing similar approaches).

Thank you !

Also if your song is played as part of the album, Spotify turns off the normalization (or maybe normalizes the whole album as a unit), but does use it when played as a single with various other tracks.

Great. Very interesting! 👍🏻👏🏻

Thanks for this amazingly free content iZotope! I'd like to ask if it's necessary to use the dither option on the Maximizer as part of the final plugin in our chain in order to export to 24 bit. Are there any benefits? Thanks!

Is there a right way to measure dynamic range? There are some plugins out there like DynaMeter which is looking at the relationship between Peak and RMS. It presents a target dynamic range based on averages from streaming services. Of course, adjustments should be made for each song, but what are your thoughts on a target dynamic range meter?

Wow - I can actually follow you. Maybe I can actually learn to master my own music...

great guy!

Great video..!! .i did a master beofre with a -9.00 LUFS CD level and Spotify of course loweered the volume....my question is: Do I always have to semd it -13 dbm for streaming?? I dod it before amd still lowerr the volume so how can we put a song that sounds realy good in Spotify???? Thanks 👍🔥🔥🔥

Is there any known test on Spotify or other streaming service where we can hear -14 vs -8 and be able to compare to itself and other songs. Ideally multiple songs and genres. If not - there’s a project!

I use an aggregator, CD Baby, to release my music for streaming and for purchase. I can only submit one file, 44100Khz - 16 Bit wave file, for each release. I use Ozone 8 for mastering and use the master assistant set to CD High, I then set the maximizer threshold to -1.0 dB and the loudness to -10 LUFS. It seems to work for all the services that I can check (I don't have accounts on all the streaming services) but I'm wondering if there is a better way to make one file work for all!

Hi guys, The thing is that I measure loudness from youtube music through Youlean for some major songs, every single one is a lot above -14 lufs integrated, with true peak well above -1. Usually I measured around -9 lufs and +0.5 (and above to +1) true peak. How does this explained according to spotify/youtube loudness policies? I'm pretty sure about my measurements that I did with different methods (streaming, downloading,...) on major hits. Cheers C.

Question: What levels in Wav or Mp3 would you recommend for playback in a standard computer with windows 64 bit Op-system (in Windows media player). I send files to the Police in Sweden and they claim not to hear what is being said. They do not have speakers and just rely on the integrated speaker in the monitor. They won't buy decent speakers/soundcard and refuse to listen to audio with me present or in my studio since that is not their standard op-procedure. Any tips? Best Regards.

This might get lost in the many comments, but my question is, what happens with "back catalog" and older recordings? Are they all being remastered for streaming, or just encoded as-is? Anyone know?

Additional factor (2) when deciding what headroom to leave: Historically (at least), some encoders have behaved badly (eg giving giving horrible kinds of clip) when headroom is near the maximum. I’ve heard elsewhere that a number of plugins “work at their best” within a certain levels range (and for streaming, our maximiser by definition won’t be the “final link in the chain”). Any thoughts on this?

Where's the Cat Shirt ? :D Another fantastic episode, thank you Jonathan and Izotope !

Question: What is a good master loudness for cinematic and orchestral music? Also, any good tips for mastering that type of music? Thanks!

Hi Jonathan, are you planing to make any mastering seminar in europe any time soon..?

Great series. While I appreciate the “every track is different” approach would you be able to suggest a LUFF’s setting for Spotify as a general target? I’ve heard -8,-9. and-10 from different sources. Is there a level that you could recommend that both sounds good as well as not incurring significant level change ?

What program/plugin and presets are being shown at the 0:24 mark? These would be great in Ozone 9 (if they're not already there)

can we get a general idea of how to set our masters instead of working with a specific plugin?

thank you for these videos, I was wondering about what we should be sending to vinyl pressing plants as opposed to cd or streaming sites as well

Sweet

HareKrishna&GodBless❤️🙏

We've been conducting tests lately and noticed how it is true that platforms will, for a fact, 'turn down' your music. It is definitely there. I guess the whole point is not killing/squashing the soul out of your music if you're exclusively going to stream it. -11 through -9 seem to be working pretty good, even if you're doing heavy rock or similar genres that will sound compressed per se. This whole loudness normalization has taken it's time to settle but to be completely honest, I like it. Somehow it's trying to bring a bit of life back to the tracks. The experience of listening through a playlist feels consistent.

Jonathan, would you agree that if i have a reference track on x LUFS integrated, and it sounds louder than my track at the same LUFS integrated, the first thing to do is check my tonal balance? Maybe the focus of energy in my track is different as opposed to the reference?

okay what song is used there, its so good

Great video answers the question why streamed music sounds lifeless if played normally usinf natuve dac of device

What should we consider about the loudness normalization for all the songs in a full length album? (Album with both high energy songs and soft ballads)

Does the ozone 9 master assistant streaming configuration works well for mastering songs for streaming services? Thanks...

Hi Jonathan, at 6.00 you adjusted the threshold to 8.5dB, why? Surely that will affect the final level and you made no mention of it...... just trying to understand. Thx

Master for all pllatforms.And make it sound good on phones.

One more question about dither. I have Ozone 8. If I do not check off the 'enable dither' box when I export, does that mean any settings I have in the dither section are ignored? And also, if I DO check off the box, does it use the settings from that dither section. I'm assuming that's the way it works, but wanted to make sure. Based on your last answer, I now understand why dither is not saved when you save a preset!

How come (apart from legacy) Ozone controls/meters are in dB not LUFS ? Necessitates (downstream) use of separate meters and/or Loudness-enforcing modules (as in RX) ? Would it be better to have Ozone mode (metric-space) selectable eg various Loudness standards as well as Legacy?

How to chahge the System sound of my PC though the Ozone? like APO Equalizer

Thanks for a great video. I have a question about headroom. Is it true that one should leave a couple of dB's of headroom on the 2-track for mastering? If so, why? Can't the mastering engineer just gain the signal up or down as needed, before applying processing? Thank you.

KZfaq ...Master at Compression ! Make my master's at Boombox , PA , Old and New Stereos , Car Radio Amplitude & Frequency modulations , best can !

Is the "gain" using a gain plugin different and reacts differently to the limiter as compared to the input gain on the limiter itself? if yes then what is the best approach for a clean and loud master?

May find some way to trick the level tampering Bots used by streaming service into not tampering with the masters. Some kind of front end or decoy in a plug in or app maybe?

Hi. What about mono compatible ? For streaming my max peak is - 3 db. So if any one for some reason are listning in mono there won´t be any distortion. Michael S

I trust you.

Is there any way to access these in full resolution? Ironically I think the KZfaq audio encoding is compressing the audio so much I'm having trouble hearing encoding artifact differences.

@Izotope I would love to do some review's of the new plug-ins, I don't have a big following but trying to get product sponsor's I run a small business & pay out of pocket for all my music tool's.

When we are talking about loudness and the RMS number there would be a constant number for streaming platforms such as spotify. What is the exact number? And even what number is the worlds standard?

What modules are those in your bottom left.

Hopefully you are still monitoring for questions...about dither. I find myself doing it at multiple times. At the mixing stage to prepare for mastering and at the mastering stage. Is this bad? Should I dither only once?

Can i master the qlimax with different lufs (ex: -7 or -6) and make big headroom for the other elements? How streaming services will translate the audio? Is this a correct way to master a track? Thank really enjoying your advices!

Hello Jonathan! I just made a test using a LFUS loudness meter of 2 songs from Spotify, one of them a song I just mastered and the other was "American Idiot" from Green day, both song were on - 14LFUS but American Idiot sounds much more louder than mine even being at the same LFUS... how do I can get more loudness from my -14 LUFS masters??? help please! Thanks!!!

👍

👍🏾

How do you address creating an album with each track having a different perceived loudness level? Is this okay? Then people have to be ready to adjust volume all the time though? Thanks!

How can I use this for a movie track filled with dialogue and music

How can o master with high peak rms at -16lufs for Podcasts? I’m baffled

My tracks are mastered at a good volume (about-9 dB LUFS) but the streaming services such as Spotify keeps turning the volume down and it sounds very soft compared to other tracks on Spotify. I really don't know what to do ! I master my songs with Ozone 8 and I'm a beginner in mastering

The artists can inform the audience. It does not have to be that we just assume the audience will always prefer louder. We could easily shift the way people talk away from loudness being so important. We just have to stop the tendency to overly compress and make tracks louder and talk about the benefits to dynamic range and not overly compressing so that it is hard to listen to.

One thing you didn't mention. Always master from a 32-bit file. It keeps the high end much more intact when converting to MP3 than equivalent 16-bit file

Bro i noticed that my Beats Are Sounding better on SoundCloud than on KZfaq u think its Because of the codec or lufs setting? I use ozone 8

song title??

tons of questions here with no aswers,now let me join. Iv searched all over the internet but didnt find anything about Facbook''s LUFS. Tried to publish music video with -12 to -16 Luf but on playback on mobile phones specialy iphones. it sounds so intense and distorted at full volume. however, on somebody adverstisement music production they dont distort on full volume the sweatness still maintained. Why is that?

Skrillex is the master of loudness - 2 LUFS 😯

I hope u vell explained in explain

How to achieve -24 LUFS on -18 DBFS without cutting any dynamics

relevant website for this topic: www.loudnesspenalty.com/

Why does all the stuff I reference during master meter WAAAY over -14. It really seems wimpy and soft for rock and metal

🎶🔥

Logic Pro mmmm,

When you say nerd.. Makes me laughing bcs remembering me when do right click on youtube screen after upload the video just for see content loudness . What happen when loosless audio compression not exist anymore, technology always up.. 5G, 6G, 7G, 10G??.. and probably next 2 years 50TB on single SSD. When you download your own content from your own youtube account the audio comeback normal, not reduce/compress like when you playback on youtube.

still seems like the most confusing thing in music production but maybe it's just me

What is the preferred loudness for Spotify? I have heard that setting your reference at -11 LUFS and going according to that. So its somewhere in the -12 -13 range or ?

I agree that mastering for spesific medium isn't that great of an idea. Think ten years forward; will we still use Spotify? If not, your master could sound held back or otherwisely out of place Will we talk about "Spotify-sound of the 2010"?

0:16 video is sped up and he looks like when a cat is trying to catch something 😆

This is all so confusing.

I'm really missing the cat shirts... 🙂

He mate, really good video, thanks! I just realized on my DT1770 that the gating on this video is pretty weird in terms of the Mic noise. Maybe on regular speakers or phones you dont realize, but it`s kind of annoying that the noise goes whaap whaap whaaawhapwhap. Thanks anyway, great stuff! SAiZ

😲👏🏾

The idea of a lamp pointing the viewer is completely nonsense... disturbs the main theme.

still my super loud track (-5 lufs / -3 rms) sounds quiet on soundcloud lol

Streaming services are actually ending the stupid loudness wars, were going back to more dynamics and natural sound again. Thank u streaming, over compressed distorted pop is finally going to take a back seat for once.

So let me just think about what thay will do to my song so I can change my song to the point of it sucking then maby if I'm lucky thay will fix it .na thay need to stop this is worse than the loudness war this is the crap war battle of the craps .no wait this is oposit land if you want it to be loud just make it quiet how mutch well I don't know just guess and try to imagin it was loud that way when thay turn it up u will finaly get to hear it .but wait won't it be realeast alwredy yes it will .so just guess at it trust me his is better .i don't know I like my master to stay the same who guesses what ther music sounds like when it's done omg help them loard help me help them

Luckily none of the artists I've produced, mixed and mastered these days are big enough to worry about "competitive loudness on streaming services". They just make the music they want and the finished songs sound the way they want them to sound. When it comes over the local radio stations they've got no complaints. I guess being the little guy alleviates a lot of the BS and hoops the big shots have to deal with. That makes me happy.