[Ardour-Users] New analysis window when doing an export

[Robin Gareus]

On 02/22/2016 01:16 AM, jonetsu at teksavvy.com wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Feb 2016 19:23:32 +0100
> Robin Gareus <robin at gareus.org> wrote:
> 
>> As for LUFS, LU, don't forget to follow the link from the forum
>> thread: http://www.tcelectronic.com/loudness/loudness-explained/  In
>> short it's average loudness and dynamic range.
> 
> I see.  I have tried another export, reducing the master volume by
> -5.7dB and the resulting LUFS was -18.5 (original was -17.2). 

Note that with "normalize" enabled you won't modify the average.
In this case it made a slight difference because the master bus was
clipped (negative normalization gain), in your first export.

> If the
> 'broadcast standard' to be targeted is -23 or -24, then there's
> something totally wrong with this mix since the master bus volume will
> have to be so small. So while I see the theory, it"s a totally
> different matter in practice.
> 
> Is this -23, -24 LUFS a sensible target to aim for ?

As Joern already said: Yes, if your work needs to adhere to broadcast
standards.  Most Broadcasters - incl the North American ATSC - have
adopted the EBU Recommendation (sometimes with slight variation):
http://www.tcelectronic.com/loudness/broadcast-standards/

If your target medium is CD and the target audience is the Metal or
Techno scene, then no. You can ignore the loudness report numbers or
only take them as hint.  It's art and if -3 LUFS and no dynamic range is
exactly what you want your music to sound like that's perfectly fine.

Load some music into Ardour which is similar to the one you want to
mix/master and see what loudness range and level it has.

The x42-meters bundle also contains an EBU-R128 meter:
https://github.com/x42/meters.lv2/#screenshots

Cheers!
robin