LUFS - Should we be creating a YouTube Loudness Standard?

TechWiz

TechWiz

Active Member
I'm very fresh here in the YTtalk Community but thought I would add something to the conversation that I can seem to find addressed anywhere, not even in youtube videos. That thing is Loudness. I'm sure we have all gone to a YouTube video and the volume is so low we need to crank our poor little speakers only to find the next one is blairing out uncontrollably whilst we fumble for the volume knob. Not cool.....

I've been trying to create a standard for myself and have even been dissecting some of the larger youtubers only to find that no one keeps to any one standard. Linus Tech Tips goes between -15 LUFS and -21 LUFS. So what is LUFS? It's simply put, a measurement of loudness. In Europe, the standard LUFS for broadcast that is adopted by all the major broadcasting corporations is -23 LUFS. Recently, the Podcasting loudness rating has been laid out at -16 LUFS (which I find to be quite high comparatively).

I've been going back through my videos and playing with original source audio to find that the sweet spot does appear to be -20 LUFS for most youtube videos. Anything above -23 LUFS, the volume starts getting quite low. Anything below -18 LUFS, the volume starts to clip a little (for my audio at least).

Has anyone else tried to get a consistent setting for all their audio across all videos, or is this something that hasn't really been attempted. I am not an audio engineer so any comments I make hear may be incorrect or not the whole picture. What I am learning about though is the loudness standards in broadcasting and trying to generate a more professional sound through Adobe Audition using Noise Gates, Single Band Compressors, Match Volume and Hard Limiting only at this stage.

If anyone else has any comments on this, please let me know, especially if you have any sort of Audio Engineering background.
 
I used to record my voice a bit far from Mic, that's why my sound was dull, I have bought new mics and done anything possible, but nothing worked, until I realized that THE DISTANCE FROM MY MOUTH TO MIC was a bit FAR! So I started recording my voice near to mic in a closed room! And BRAVO I made it :D
 
I'm still trying to figure out how to best manage my sound levels, it's on a video to video basis at the moment.
 
I don't have a consistent setting per se but I always try to make sure my audio is as loud as possible with no clipping in Audacity or no red bars (same thing) appearing in Premiere Pro. In Audacity I do have some consistent settings for my compressor but I play with the threshold setting depending on whether I'm doing dual commentary or solo, for solo I usually only have to have the threshold at around -8 to -12dB and for dual commentary cause we're further from the mic I had to amp it up to around -28 to -30dB. Most of the time either way I do everything by ear. The only consistent setting I actually have is setting my desktop audio to 30 and if I can hear it loud and clear at 30 then that's an alright point for me and seems to be the normal for Firefox, when I watch YouTube vids I very rarely go above 15-30 for listening levels. Even when I have the fan running I have a consistent audio level I use while editing which is around a volume of 50-60. I don't think it's an issue with setting a standard as is as much some YouTuber's not listening by ear or monitoring their dB in their editing software properly.
 
I was told by a producer at nbc that keeping peaks just under 0 db but never over is optimal. I record at around -18 for headroom, then bring it up in post to just under 0 at peaks. Over 0 is clipping and causes distortion, obviously.
 
I was under the impression that it was all to do with DB (decibels) too but after further research, the new standard for getting a balanced sense of loudness is LUFS. An analysis of the whole audio track is made and the Match Volume window in Adobe Audition allows you to set the LUFS. So once you've done any compression and hard limiting, you can then set you final output to a LUFS setting (-20 LUFS is what I am aiming for now). This is supposed to provide you with a balanced audio level across all you videos instead of ear-balling it (couldn't think of a comparison to eye-balling:D ). I know in America they use a similiar system called LKFS. The reason big broadcasting stations are implementing the standards are due to some advertisements blaring out far louder than the actual programs being shown. So by having the standard, everything is at the same level.
 
I've always wondered why YouTube doesn't adjust audio levels. They re-encode the uploaded file anyway, so it shouldn't be that hard for them to change the audio...? They don't even give suggestions for audio levels... it baffles me. And I never know what to do myself. I always amplify just so that it doesn't clip and that's it. :confused:
 
It is strange isn't it Sabrina. I am also lead to believe that Spotify do this properly and make all their music the same "loudness" so one song isn't blaring whilst the next is quiet. I'm going to look into it some more, ask for more comments especially from audio engineers and possibly even do a tutorial video on how to make all your videos audio the same levels. I'm just surprised more people haven't heard of LUFS. Video quality is one part but the Audio quality is just as if not more important than the video. And just like keeping a good video structure is important, so should a consistent audio levelling structure. Just my opinion, but I hope it helps some people to look into their audio and see what they can do to improve a little :D
 
SabrinaKom said:
I've always wondered why YouTube doesn't adjust audio levels. They re-encode the uploaded file anyway, so it shouldn't be that hard for them to change the audio...? They don't even give suggestions for audio levels... it baffles me. And I never know what to do myself. I always amplify just so that it doesn't clip and that's it. :confused:
Click to expand...
I'd assume because there's way too much variation in everyone's audio & equipment to do that. YouTube's compression reduces the quality of the video enough as it is, we don't need them doing the same with our audio as well.
 
I'll try to get my videos fairly close in sound in hopes that someone going through a bunch of them at once won't have to bother with adjusting their speakers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top