Should I Master My Songs To -14 LUFS? And why the answer is NO!

Рет қаралды 4,695

Жыл бұрын

Brace yourselves.
I'm on a bit of a rant here about the misinformation floating around regarding mastering to -14 LUFS as a target loudness.
-14 luff is just the PLAYBACK level on Spotify, it is not a TARGET to aim for with loudness.
If you make it through the video, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

Пікірлер: 49

@jellyjacobbazooka7867 Жыл бұрын

helpful like always man! Thank you, I'm waiting for longer episode with all mixing session from start to the end

@spinlightstudios Жыл бұрын

Cheers man! It’s on the cards, just need to find time to make it, might end up being a multi part series or something cause it’ll take a while to film/edit

@marcokallenborn3331 6 ай бұрын

This is hands down the best KZfaq channel foer mixing and mastering! It helped me improve my own work in a very short time! Thank you so much!!!

@spinlightstudios 6 ай бұрын

Thanks legend! Happy to help!

@FataMorgana-Official 7 ай бұрын

I agree with you! Use your ear 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. And remember, the most important thing when you are mastering, use your ears, not numbers! // Peter

@Thedustbowlaudio 9 ай бұрын

Always figured that if you get the track to sound the way you want it, then bring up the level to where peaks are at -1 (or whatever your safety level is) and see what the loudness looks like you have a good starting point. If it's super loud, but sounds right, then it really doesn't matter if it gets turned down. If it's too quiet, then limit/maximise until you don't like what it does to the sound - after that you need to revisit the mix. NIce vid.

@bryandrums32 Жыл бұрын

Awesomeness!,!!!!!, I dug it!

@Lurofelli Жыл бұрын

Great video, one more subscriber, hello from Brazil 🤙🤙

@spinlightstudios Жыл бұрын

Thanks Lurofelli! Gday from Australia 😄

@aleksamrkela831 Жыл бұрын

Great video. It also helps to mention that a song mastered at -8 LuFS will always sound bigger and louder than one mastered to -14 LuFS, even if played side-by-side on Spotify.

@spinlightstudios Жыл бұрын

Absolutely 👊🏻

@thapixelduveet1860 5 ай бұрын

If u take them side by side then the -14lufs version will sound the best.

@thedepps4837 5 ай бұрын

Thanks Rhys Man...Awesome!!!👊👊👊🙏

@spinlightstudios 5 ай бұрын

Oldie but a goodie

@Necropheliac 29 күн бұрын

Why not create different masters, one for streaming at -14 lufs, and another for general release? The reason I don’t want to just submit the general release master is because the streaming services normalize it through automation and I don’t necessarily want their automated processes to mangle the sound.

@spinlightstudios 29 күн бұрын

They will normalize your track no matter what. You might be missing the point - it’s like someone controlling the volume knob and making sure there isn’t a huge discrepancy between volumes from track to track. It’s definitely not a mastering “target” for loudness. Can guarantee no professional mastering engineers master to -14lufs. They only time I have done a -14lufs master was a band basically forced me to do it, then their song sounded quiet on streaming and on the store - basically sounded like it hadn’t been mastered. Also multiple masters is not a good idea - every platform has a different loudness normalization/playback - you really can’t cater to them all - and you’re not meant to. Just my 2 cents on the matter!

@thebcane 11 ай бұрын

I'm curious your thought on this topic in regards to Podcast/dialogue mastering! I work in the podcast field and I struggle with this all the time, do you think should I be 'ignoring' the -14 even when mastering a pod SPECIFICALLY for a single streaming services?? (We have an exclusive deal with a streaming service to it is only released on ONE platform) Just curious what your thoughts are on that! Thank you for the content!

@spinlightstudios 11 ай бұрын

Even if I was mastering just to have it on one service like Spotify, I would still master it louder than -14lufs, even if it was closer to -11lufs is safer just because some people don’t choose the loudness normalization feature.

@gayanpathirana9328 Ай бұрын

"Most of my mixes are hitting -14LUFS and I haven't even put a limitter on it yet" This is the case with most of my mixes too. Most of the time I get a good level and a decent amount of limitting around -9 -8 LUFS and it is without the dynamics being crushed flat. I've tried -14 and -16 masters but when published, they are embarassingly quiet.

@GabrielsUniverse 3 ай бұрын

This video deserves to be 100x more popular.

@ashishaven 29 күн бұрын

Good informative video..Thank you for posting..I mastered my songs for you tube -11 lufs and true peak - 1 db by using Ozone.. Suppose if I mastered to - 9 or -10 lufs for youtube....dynamic quality of the song will be affected or not.. I felt if I mastered the song to -9 or - 10 lufs.. please give ur suggestions 🎉

@spinlightstudios 29 күн бұрын

Thanks. As long as you think the master sounds good, then it will be fine. If you master to -9 it won’t make a difference!

@ashishaven 29 күн бұрын

@@spinlightstudios thank you sir...for ur immediate reply sir

@michaell.8938 5 ай бұрын

I always master louder than -14 LUFS, but somehow my mixes still sound quieter than other songs on Spotify, etc. I'm usually around -10 LUFS on average. I don't get it. I've started using a clipper plugin with a very minimal setting, which gives me another 1.5dB of level on my limiter, so hopefully that'll help some. Your thoughts?

@spinlightstudios 5 ай бұрын

It’s impossible to tell how it all really works. Some quiet tracks sound super loud. Some loud tracks sound quiet. I don’t think algorithm even understands what it’s doing 🤪

@spinlightstudios 5 ай бұрын

Some loud tracks sound… loud 😂 I’ve just stopped overthinking about Spotify playback. I think the only people who care are the people mixing the song, they want it to be the loudest. The listeners don’t care if there’s a little bit of variance - which there always will be

@agraciotti 27 күн бұрын

KZfaq and spotify keeps pushing my volume WAY down. I got around 9LUFS and I'm mastering matching the volume and average loudness to some professional finished tracks. I even keep my true peak at -1 and my volume still gets drastically reduced when published. What is happening?

@spinlightstudios 27 күн бұрын

Could be crest factor or even just the balance of the tracks - bass heavy material sounds quieter than a more treble focused mix at the same LUFS values etc. so many factors.. the best thing to do is not worry about it ultimately… just make mixes and masters you like. Don’t ruin them over trying to be loud on Spotify etc

@kylo____ 2 ай бұрын

Smart.

@spinlightstudios 2 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@lancecollins5074 4 ай бұрын

why does distrokid distort my song when I upload it? As soon as I listen to the preview its distorted and I didnt use their loudness normilazation button.

@spinlightstudios 4 ай бұрын

Did you leave a headroom of around -1db on your track? If you have your track really close to 0 it can cause clipping when it converts to the streaming format.

@lancecollins5074 4 ай бұрын

@@spinlightstudios It was -14lufs intergated idk why it does it

@thapixelduveet1860 5 ай бұрын

If i go over -14 lufs then i can hear the song loses quality, some kind of dynamic range loss. 😂 Between -14 & -12 lufs seems alright for me.

@spinlightstudios 5 ай бұрын

Whatever sounds best to you is good!

@kuliherb103 4 ай бұрын

LISTEN TO THIS GUY....HE'S SOOOOOO RIGHT!

@spinlightstudios 4 ай бұрын

🙏🏼

@JamesBermingham Жыл бұрын

Great video So you’re saying, let the streaming services reduce your tracks 👍

@spinlightstudios Жыл бұрын

Yes! You don’t need to worry about mastering to their playback level, and it’s pointless as all platforms have differing playback levels. Just make your master sound great and the algorithms will do the rest at setting the appropriate playback volume for each service.

@JamesBermingham Жыл бұрын

@@spinlightstudios your video is great timing for me. I’ve just been painstakingly mastering with Ozone to the -14lufs and your video makes perfect sense, especially if people decide to download the source file. Back to Plan A 👍

@spinlightstudios Жыл бұрын

@@JamesBermingham glad you found it helpful! There is so much confusion around the subject from incorrect information being shared.