HOW LOUD Should Your Videos Be? DaVinci Resolve 19 Tutorial [audio levels, compression, volume]

A quick tutorial on audio levels in DaVinci Resolve 19...

MY GEAR ↓↓↓

00:00 Intro
00:40 1. Recording Levels
01:14 2. Compression
02:18 3. Voice Levels
03:23 4. Background Music Levels

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[Vinsta]

I’ve produced music in recording studios and had them played on national radio in the UK and on television sound tracks. Had nearly 20 years experience working with music production.
I’ve still managed to mess the audio level up on my YouTube videos. I published a couple of videos that weren’t loud enough despite the audio being recorded with quality mics and mixed in my studio.

Your explanation of compression was totally fine! And now I know what db to aim for!

[djordjek]

Another tip for everyone is when you are finished with your vo, music and sfx edit, and you want to check loudness and true peak levels for YT, which is -14LUFS and -1db true peak, the easiest way to check it is to click on timeline and bounce mix to a new track. Then select and solo that bounced mix clip, right click it and choose analyze audio levels. It will show you loudness and true peak. After that you increase or decrease volume on a bus and play with a limiter effect on a bus as well to reach desired true peak.

Also I would like to point out, by clicking on timeline I meant clicking on timeline dropdown menu, not the actual timeline. I am not sure if the above can be done on the edit page, if it can't, just switch to Fairlight page.

Doing so my loudness is always at around -0.5db on YT when I check stats for nerds, which is perfect.

Btw great video man. Keep up the good work. 👍

[billyjayamunga]

Everytime I'm looking for a solution, you pop up on the search results with exactly what I need. SUBSCRIBED!!

[luizotaviosbrandao]

I'm Brazilian and learn a lot from your videos, not only video, editing, and other tips for the videographer universe, but, my English too. It's better thanks to your videos and your way to speak

[VRDaD]

I am no way an expert but I think an additional thing that perhaps could help for studio users is using the audio ducker for the background music and the dialogue processor for the voice.

[carines.nevalga]

Great video as always, Joris! Thanks for making it simple to understand for beginners like myself :)

[sergiosheypol]

Something interesting in this topic is that Youtube normalizes the audio to reach a certain level of perceived loudness. In the past it was around -14LUFS. So it’s a good idea to check whether your loudness is around that so it doesn’t get too squashed 😊 thanks for always delivering super interesting content Joris!!

[LiveProductionTips]

I aim between-3 and -1 for the final compressed sound. (Voice) like the highest picks . I have seen master sound picking exactly 0
But I also think regardless what we do when we upload to YouTube they readjust the sound to sound similar throughout the platform.

[claudiaswonderworld]

Purrrfect, these tips really come in handy, as I was just wondering, how to lower the high peaks... thank you! 🤗

[DmitriiMedeliaev]

Thank you for your video. That's really helpfull

[TheDIYFilmmaker]

Thank you Joris! I usually apply Normalization but there are several options and I use -6dB, with is very close to the -5dB that you do manually. So, different paths, same result. Cheers!

[wesguity]

How did you know I needed this exact video this weekend?!

[milanzeeman]

This is my go to and why its because the customer or for now the viewer is able to choose of setting there master volume higher and or lower and still here everthing perfect.
But yes its all about what you think is right ;)

Overall Mix Level: -10db to -14db
Dialogue: -12db to -15db
Music: -18db to -22db
Sound Effects: -10db to -20db with occasional spikes up to -8db.

[lonniesfilmmaking]

Thanks so much mate, this is aimple to do 😊

Personally I don't like levels that hit the red ❤

[jinbqfh]

I edit my audio externally with Audacity and master it all the way down to -3 dB. It's compressed, peaks are eliminated and I've already used an EQ and a gate. Then I put the finished mastered track under the video. If I have multiple audio tracks, I only adjust the volume of the individual audio tracks in davinci. I make sure that the fader in the master doesn't go beyond the yellow area. the audio settings in davinci don't satisfy me

[MasterAnt]

Thanks for the tips! Excited to try then out!

[ChrisKluepfel]

I absolutely hate doing audio in davinci, so you know it they plan on integration of REAPER? Would be perfect!

[gadswez]

It would be great if you could have also explained about LUFS and we should aim around -14 LUFS for Youtube.

[ssnake]

i have doubt which is related to PC ... like what should be the volume in the PC when your editing a video ... Just have this major doubt in mind ... should I put the volume level 50 or 100 % in PC or lower it down ... I have a doubt in this

[miliggi]

To be 100% sure that your audio doesn't distort, you may also want to use the limiter. Although I personally wouldn't want it to trigger, but it's just a safety measure.