How LOUD to Master Your Music (Any Genre)

How loud should you master your music? Spoiler alert: -14LUFS is almost never loud enough...
In this video, I break down SPECIFIC loudness standards you can shoot for to know your master will be loud enough for your specific genre.
- Colin Cross

#logicprox #garageband #musicproduction

[lightofchai]

I like how you gave us a continuum based on genre. This was a very well-rounded explanation. Thanks!

[dannyknox]

If you don't already have it a video showing the 2 limiters and clipper process would be helpful to see in context with the how, where and why's. Thanks!

[RBL]

Always so helpful !
Easily my favorite channel on You Tube 🎸

[aartstrong]

Helpful content, as usual. There are some noise heads out here, who judge a master’s quality solely on the basis of loudness, regardless of genre. You pitch your song to those among them who own playlists, and they get back to you with the usual line, “Blah, blah, blah… unfortunately, your song is too quiet. You should find a pro to master it for you, ” which is code for “My hearing is gone, and I can only hear sounds played at maximum volume” or “Your song is not my type, so I’ll just say something, anything to explain why I’m not playlisting it.” It is high time we ended this ridiculous loudness war once and for all 😊

[StratsRUs]

I've found that -6 to -3 dB for a mix goes well in a rock 'but not too heavy' track.
Thanks for all your videos !

[dmind]

I meter a lot of reference masters - bands like Disturbed are going to be around -6 LUFS. I can master well targeting -6 LUFS for that style / genre, but other more conservative bands are in the -7 to -8 LUFS range. Volbeat's last album (Servant of the Mind) is hitting around -8.5 LUFS on average, and Last in Line's last album is more or less centered around -7 LUFS. My next album will target around -7 LUFS. Frequency balance is incredibly important, along with crest factor and as you say, using a clipper carefully. What I have found is that if you have decent crest factor and good frequency balance, you can master to -6 LUFS and have it still sound acceptable, provided that you have good source tracks - and a good mix, which is implied by the frequency balance stipulation. I do see more producers / tracks in the metal genre easing back towards -8 LUFS however. It's a balance - if you go too loud, any imbalances are going to get harsh, but if you go to quiet (for rock / metal), you aren't going to get the aggressive sound and fullness that people expect.

[stephanmarkgraf]

Thank's again. Your videos are extremely helpful.

[ForrestOfFangHorn]

Excellent advice and great video as always.

[DanMia-cdbm]

Okay...this is key to getting it done A to Z..thanks Colin.

[ttguitar]

The issue, at least with YouTube, is that when you go beyond 14 LUFS, they turn it down. I experimented uploading many videos of the same music but with different levels of loudness and all of them ended up with the same loudness once uploaded. Also, the louder ones got compressed pretty bad by YouTube so they didn’t sound the way they were intended. The one that was mastered to 14 LUFS was the closest one in sound to what was intended

[markushassel]

Absolutely AMAZING video! So much bs out here on Youtube, thanks for keeping it real. New sub!

[DigitalChemistryBand]

Thanks for this... I've been "inline mastering" ... -11 to -12 lufs... -1 trupeak +/- .2... instrumental rock... I've been looking for awhile for someone confirming I might be on the right track for my targets... you're the first one that gave numbers that werent keyed to edm productions. I may push to -10 just because... I've not noticed any compression issues through Facebook... what would you master to for CD?

[LarryMonteforte]

Any recommendation for bringing up the quieter parts of songs?

I'm really happy with how the chorus and more full parts of the songs are sounding, but I've noticed that often the intros and especially first verse are not as loud as professional mixes. Is it as simple as automating the volume? Should I be using some different type of compression for the quiet sections to make sure they're loud enough?

[stevesimmonds]

Brilliant video. Thanks a lot for your help! I’m struggling with staying below -1 on my true peak as I’m mastering rock music. Is it ok to go up to -0.5 etc to get a good clearer / louder sound and not sacrificing mix ?
Thanks

[mikeaustin]

Although I don't get too lost in LUFS output, this is some good info. Most of the time the recording levels (incl. max) are pretty good for most of the big DAWs (as long as the user has a good level set on his end), but sometimes they're surprisingly weak. I usually try to record everything at 0 DB as it's roughly = LUFS par setting, and gives a lot of headway both directions to adjust; if I can't then I might run into issues - if I have doubts I'll run the mix through the LUFS meter, but most of the time paying attention to decibels (and the "red line") works for my stuff. Logic Pro includes a LUFS meter, as does most of the paid (hint: more expensive) DAW apps. The freebies and Garage Band don't but there are some nice free ones out there. Everyone is different, but I usually use LUFS as a check/backup to regular ol' decibel recording. Maybe some day I'll make the transition over to LUFS metering first, but for now it's not a problem for me to use the old school decibel method.

[SmashinAdams]

It won't let me sign up for the checklist. 😥

[jonvincentmusic]

Mostly I'm happy with the loudness of my masters, what I *am* tired of is commercial releases being too loud. 'Competitively loud' shouldn't be a thing. I'm happy to lose listeners who skip by my music because it isn't loud enough. One thing you can't restore if it's already been lost is dynamics. How the heck is a climax supposed to hit hard if there's just nowhere further to take it. The reason music generally just sounded better 30-40 years ago wasn't the writing, it was the production.

[fredjones]

A happy funky pop/party song. Verses have bright (recorded) acoustic guitar with the chorus having some epic synth strings added?

[lizzie_calisto]

would you put Lo-fi at the far end with jazz?

[TheAidenWrestling]

I’m currently in a band and we are recording our studio album. Do you have any advice for mixing separate tracks recorded from a Focusrite Scarlett. We have guitar, drums & piano recorded but the problem is since it’s plugged directly in. Everything is raw and has no plug-in sounds or ways to mix it to sound good. Do you have any ideas how to fix that? Do we add EQ, treble, compression? We just want it to sound like a good mix without it sounding like demo work.