Loudness Targets for Mastering (…It’s not what the streaming services tell you.)
How loud should your master be? It’s a common question, but the best answer depends a lot on your genre, production style and goals.
Streaming services like Spotify would have you believe that shooting for -14 LUFS in your masters should be good enough, once their automatic volume normalization does its job.
But most producers working in popular styles of music find that this target doesn’t allow their music to stand up to their favorite releases on playlists. And as they investigate further, they find out that practically none of their favorite records are this quiet.
What are some better real world targets for mastering levels? Justin Colletti advises.
Check out the video here, or a brief synopsis of some of the targets below.
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Spoiler alert: Some good “safe” targets for mastering are:
Pop and Rock: -13 to -10 LUFS (possibly louder)
Hip Hop: -10 to -8 LUFS (sometimes louder, sometimes quieter)
EDM: -8 to -6 LUFS (sometimes louder)
When, why and how should you go outside these ranges? And how can you get loudness without squashing the life of your mix? All that and a lot more in this episode.
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