Sound level variations

[the buzzz]

Hi team - Overall, RB Cloud has worked very well for our station, however we do constantly find there is very noticeable sound levels for different items, the biggest being between music and station IDs, and prerecorded programs.

These items (music, show promos, ads etc) have been uploaded at 89dB and normalised in RB at -9 LUFS (although to be totally honest / I have zero clue what this means or does)!

I’ve found station id’s need to be set at around -12 LUFS as they are way too soft at -9.

Also, we have had to produce precorded shows at 94dB because, again, loading into the system at 89dB and at -9dB was too quiet. It’s very noticeable when that show finishes and the next item queued up plays…much louder!

It’s very frustrating and perhaps I’m just not understanding the whole dB and LUFS thing???

Any help on suggested settings would be awesome.

Thanks.

 

[patrick.de-bruyn]

as far as i know -14lufs is 86 db / -9lufs is 91db

LU, "Loudness Units" is a relative value of LUFS. 1 LU is approximately 1 dB.
LUFS measures the average loudness of a piece of audio over a specified a certain period of time.
The measurement of loudness using LUFS takes into account the subjective loudness.

That is, LUFS does not consider only the actual loudness levels perceived in decibels. Rather, it is the way the human ear perceives sound.

In this way, how sound hits the human ear, certain frequencies naturally sound louder than others.
These differences change when the overall level is changed.

 

[djsoft]

These items (music, show promos, ads etc) have been uploaded at 89dB and normalised in RB at -9 LUFS (although to be totally honest / I have zero clue what this means or does)!

This means it normalizes files so that they have the same perceived sound level. -9LUFS is a rough equivalent of 0dB sound level. It doesn't matter much what normalization level you choose, the important thing is that all tracks are processed and with the same level.

I’ve found station id’s need to be set at around -12 LUFS as they are way too soft at -9.

There's no need in that, you can create a file type for IDs and other special items and adjust "Playback level" in file type's settings to make them a bit louder.

 

[muzycznemiasto]

Don't forget to leave a reserve of 5-6db for sound processing, for years -12LUFS seems to be a "golden point".

 

[the buzzz]

This means it normalizes files so that they have the same perceived sound level. -9LUFS is a rough equivalent of 0dB sound level. It doesn't matter much what normalization level you choose, the important thing is that all tracks are processed and with the same level.


There's no need in that, you can create a file type for IDs and other special items and adjust "Playback level" in file type's settings to make them a bit louder.

Thanks mate - so at the moment all file types are set at 0dB. Are you saying they all should be set at a certain level, with IDs being set a higher level to adjust? So if music is -9LUFS (0dB), should IDs (if required louder) be 2 or 3dB?

 

[djsoft]

Thanks mate - so at the moment all file types are set at 0dB. Are you saying they all should be set at a certain level, with IDs being set a higher level to adjust? So if music is -9LUFS (0dB), should IDs (if required louder) be 2 or 3dB?

It depends on what end result you need, if you need those IDs to be louder.