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

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!

[Thedustbowlaudio]

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.

[marcokallenborn]

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

[FataMorgana-Official]

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

[aleksamrkela]

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.

[jellyjacobbazooka]

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

[Necropheliac]

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.

[thebcane]

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!

[GabrielsUniverse]

This video deserves to be 100x more popular.

[HollyJokerst]

The thing about tracks that are mastered quietly is that it doesn't just sound like you turned the track down quieter than the average. Maybe the average person can't quite identify it, but I think tracks that aren't mastered loud in a genre that tends to be mastered loud sound less polished because we have the expectation that the music should sound forward and have tightly controlled dynamics.

However you feel about the loudness wars, people are used to that aggressively compressed, saturated sound so you have to decide if that's what you're going for.

And it's especially going to matter if you make music that you want DJs to play - while the DJ can adjust the trim, having a track that's way more dynamic than usual may make it annoying to play and contrast too much with everything else they're playing

I've also found that if I'm struggling to get my tracks to a competitive loudness, it often means that my mix isn't balanced properly so this helps me identify issues (i.e. if my kick is triggering the limiter more than anything else, it means my kick transient is peaking too high)

[thapixelduveet]

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.

[Lurofelli]

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

[ashishaven]

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 🎉

[michaell.]

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?

[JamesBermingham]

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

[agraciotti]

Youtube 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?

[Virash_seth]

Is 9.5 lufs good and if so will distrokid approve it to Spotify

[gayanpathirana]

"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.

[kuliherb]

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

[lancecollins]

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.

[DavidComdico]

That's what your volume knob is for.