Today I'm gonna explain to you
exactly what LUFS metering is,
and how you can use it to master your music perfectly,
with Spotify, beatport, Apple Music,
and all the other streaming platforms.
So this is something that I was asked about
in the comments of my last video,
So I decided to cover it today.
And I'm gonna give you a live example
of how I master a track for CD and beatport,
and how I master it for Spotify,
and other streaming services.
If you like this video
hit that subscribe button and click that bell
to get more music production tips each and every week.
So firstly, what is LUFS?
Well, it stands for Loudness Units Full Scale,
but you don't need to worry too much about that.
All it really is, and all that really matters,
is that it's a way of measuring
average volume, rather than peak volume.
Okay, so what do I mean by that?
You've got peak volume which is the maximum volume
that your signal will hit at any time.
And the loudest it can get is 0dB full scale,
and if it goes above that, it starts to clip.
An average volume is, well, exactly that.
It's the volume measured over a period of time.
And the louder the average volume,
the louder it sounds to our ears.
But basically, LUFS was developed primarily
for television commercials.
Because you know when you watch a program
and then the television commercials come on,
they're really loud.
LUFS was designed to be able to handle that properly.
And we use it now because if you've got a service
like Spotify for instance;
(bell chiming)
If you listen to a dubstep track
with a really loud average volume,
even though it's peaking at 0dB,
and then you listen to a much quieter average volume track,
like a jazz track, it still peaks at 0dB,
but there's a lot less going on,
and it's a lot less in your face.
Obviously, there's a huge difference there,
and it sounds weird, so streaming services like Spotify
attenuate the volume of each track as they play it back,
so it sounds like a nice, smooth,
listening experience to you.
So, something with a low average volume
will get boosted up by Spotify,
and something with a really loud average volume,
will get taken down by Spotify.
So it just, it's a nicer experience for listening to.
(record scratching) Wait, wait, wait, wait.
So let me just explain to you about dynamics.
Dynamics is basically the difference between
the quietest part of your track,
and the loudest part of your track.
And the more dynamic a piece of music is,
obviously the more variation in volume.
Now something like a really hardcore dubstep track,
doesn't have much dynamic variation.
It's pretty much full on.
Where as something like that jazz track I mentioned,
will have lots of peaks and troughs in volume,
and it's gonna be a lot more dynamic.
So in this day and age,
it pays to have more dynamics in your music
if it's gonna be played on something like Spotify.
So the average volume will be played the same,
but one of them will have a lot more dynamics.
So it's gonna be more pleasing
and interesting to the ear.
So the tool that we are gonna use is the
YOULEAN LOUDNESS METER.
It's completely free, and it's a great tool
for measuring LUFS values,
so you can get that by clicking the link below this video.
Okay, so here's that live example I wanted to show you.
So I've just brought this track in by an artist
called Conway, he's actually a graduate
from my eight week master class.
And he wrote this track called, "Losing Control".
So let's have a listen to the mix-down file,
you can see there's plenty of headroom on it.
♪ Oh na na yeah ♪♪
And we'll open up our YOULEAN LOUDNESS METER,
which is one I mentioned,
♪ 'Cause baby I'm losing control ♪♪
and let's see what it's hitting.
So, these are the two readouts that you really
want to be paying attention to, mostly.
The peak volume and the integrated LUFS volume,
which is over a longer period of time.
So you can see at the moment we've got minus two points,
we've got 2.3 decibels of headroom on the peak.
And it's hitting -15 on the LUFS.
Now, we want that to be minus 14 for Spotify
so I'm just gonna add this game plug-in,
boosting up the peak value.
♪ Do you feel what I'm-- ♪
And you want to be looping the busiest,
or the loudest part of the track,
because that's where you want to set your LUFS levels to.
♪ Oh na na yeah ♪♪
Now I've boosted a couple of dB, 2.3.
Our peak is about zero, which is great.
The LUFS is minus 12.5.
This track is actually quite loud,
like at a very high average volume
'cause it's that future bass sound,
and it's had processing done on the mix-down stage,
so I would actually bounce it like this
and I would send that, or upload that to Spotify
via my Aggregator, and then that,
or my distributor, sorry.
And then that would be a more or less,
a good volume for Spotify.
Ideally it should be -14 LUFS, so you know,
I might notch it down a little bit on the gain,
on the peak.
♪ Oh na na yeah ♪♪
Yeah that's got -13 which is a bit better,
but if I was to have this uploaded to beatport,
or I wanted to play this in a nightclub,
I want that LUFS value to be a lot higher
because the nightclub limiters will just be concerned
about peak volume, not the LUFS value.
So this is an instance where the loudness for it
is still applicable.
So in that case, I would apply my mastering process.
I'm not gonna go through the whole process in this video,
but you can check out that video there,
or there, wherever it is.
And to see my mastering technique,
but I'm just gonna put a limiter on it.
So, if we pump up this limiter,
what we're gonna hear is, it's gonna sound louder,
but the peak level will stay the same.
It can't go louder than 0dB,
but the average volume is gonna go up,
so it's gonna sound a lot louder.
So let's do that.
And then look at this LUFS integrated value...
♪ Oh na na yeah. 'Cause baby I'm-- ♪
where our peak volume is still 0dB,
but now our LUFS integrated value is about -7.
Which is what I intend to aim for with tracks,
but it depends on the genre.
And always check against your reference track.
So I would check another track in here,
like download it from beatport in the same genre,
and I would check their LUFS integrated value,
and then try to match it more or less with mine.
Obviously, you don't wanna be killing the sound.
You might get it a little bit off,
but more or less, you know.
If you've got some really heavy dubstep track
and it's at -3 or -4 LUFS, that's pretty hardcore
to be honest, in my opinion.
But then you might try and match yours
to around -4 as well.
So there you have it, that is my live example
of how I would set different LUFS levels
for different purposes.
Now we go into way more depth into stuff like this,
in my 8-Week EDM Production Masterclass.
So if you are interested in that,
you can click the link below to find out more.
And as I said, the track in this video
was by one of my students in that class,
and he had only been producing for about six or seven months
when he produced this.
So if you are interested in really quick results,
and getting some proper one-on-one tuition,
check out that link below.
If you've got any questions, drop them in the comments below
and I will answer them.
Until next time, thanks for watching,
cheers, and happy producing.
♪ Oh na na yeah. ♪
♪ Do you feel what I'm feeling? ♪
♪ Oh na na yeah, 'cause baby I'm losing control. ♪
♪ Oh na na yeah, do you want it ♪♪