i just got a loudness meter by youlean and i’m beyond lost w all the numbers and lines and what not
any expert could gimme a rundown on what’s important and what i should be focusing on to make my mix loud and clear
#loudness metering help
pure kiln
pure kiln
ooh
thanks
i just used it for a beat i made and it wasn’t really quiet like all my other beats
fiery topaz
Honestly I never use it, I don't know if I should but I find it easier to make sure everything is loud and not clipping.
pure kiln
interesting
fiery topaz
ends up like this in the meter
pure kiln
how do you
get the lufs high
but the true peak is 0.1
my lufs were like -14
help
wait aren’t the red dots on the top all bad
or no
fiery topaz
I am not sure how its still peaking as a wav, but i think the red just means its peaking there and is clipping
it still sounds good to me and its not as bad as other squashed mixes I have heard
for example (super squashed mix):
fiery topaz
its all about gain staging
make things loud yet staged well
what db are you hitting?
pure kiln
on true peak?
fiery topaz
what daw do you use?
pure kiln
garageband
fiery topaz
Does garageband have a limiter on the master channel?
pure kiln
yes
fiery topaz
is your signal reaching the ceiling?
fiery topaz
Well in general I would make sure to keep the signal as loud as possible with clipping and with every instrument sounding how you want
fiery topaz
its okay to clip a little
maybe a few db
but you dont want your audio completely nuked everytime a kick lands
limpid hinge
its okay to clip a little
The issue with that is that you don't know how it will sound on other devices, that's why it's recommended to not let your audio clip, usually
pure kiln
i mean
fiery topaz
The issue with that is that you don't know how it will sound on other devices, t...
usually the things that clip are going to be elements with low attack such as a kick, snare, or percussive elements. Depending on the genre, people are fine or enjoy the way it sounds
limpid hinge
usually the things that clip are going to be elements with low attack such as a ...
Yeah but you don't know the way it sounds for them. That is the issue
fiery topaz
damn my snare is quieter than a breath
gain staging is important, easiest thing is to get a reference track and use that to help you make your decisions
pure kiln
oh reference
fiery topaz
also ask yourself the question, "Is this element important?"
pure kiln
well a snare seems rather important
fiery topaz
yeah, so being able to hear it would be nice for the listener
fiery topaz
talking about metering, look at what I found in another server
limpid hinge
talking about metering, look at what I found in another server
What about it?
fiery topaz
thought it was interesting as I have never seen anything in that range of LUFS
The producer is definitely winning the loudness wars i guess.
fiery topaz
care to explain?
limpid hinge
They're most likely metering in the project session, i.e. with float processing, so they can arbitrarily increase gain to get arbitrarily high LUFS numbers
fiery topaz
metering a rendered lossless file is that much different from the session?
limpid hinge
Yes, because you're normally rendering in integer precision
fiery topaz
I see, that changes a lot for me.
I usually just mix and "master" all from the session and then export and be done
but I think I have to mix, leave a little headroom, render, then begin mastering
limpid hinge
Not really though
You don't need headroom for mastering, you just shouldn't be clipping at any point where you're going into integer precision
There's also nothing technically wrong with mastering in the same session, it's more of a workflow decision
fiery topaz
Well if you meter in the session I would still need to render
so yeah workflow decision
limpid hinge
Not really, no, because you're metering to see the issues and fix them
fiery topaz
So fixing the issues in the session will eliminate the issues in the render?
wouldnt there be added peaks in the render though?
limpid hinge
This is all about clipping. Audio generally can't clip in the DAW, but it can clip on export/render and it may clip on playback (also may not - depending on your audio setup and routing). That means metering in the DAW can't tell you that you're clipping, because you aren't - metering can tell you that you will be clipping on export, and that's what it does. Conversely, because you can't clip, you can just raise your gain through the roof and because it's not actually clipping yet, the LUFS value will rise through the roof as well - only it won't mean anything, because LUFS is defined with respect to integer full scale (hence the "FS") and that just doesn't exist in float audio. So if you're peaking above 0 dB, the LUFS value becomes meaningless. It's like saying "15" when you're asked to rate something on a scale of 1 to 10
There are a lot of other reasons to want to avoid clipping, but that's a different story altogether
fiery topaz
I see what you mean. I didnt know you couldnt clip in a daw
just tried it out, this is really interesting to learn about
limpid hinge
Yeah it's because the daw internally uses float point precision for the calclation, and that simply has no "maximum value" (for all practical purposes)
blazing bloom
limpid hinge
If you still think that you might not have understood my explanation earlier 😄
limpid hinge
It's math. Addition, really 😄
pure kiln
cool cool