The Loudness Penalty website has been one of the most successful projects I’ve ever worked on, and also one of the most controversial.
We knew when we chose to include the word “Penalty” in the name that it would ruffle some feathers – and we were OK with that. After all, we wanted the site to be useful but also to raise awareness. Why bother uploading your song at -6 LUFS if all the streaming services are going to turn it down by 8 dB ? Whatever you think of the name, that’s hardly a Loudness Bonus !
It has caused some criticism though, with people saying we’re inventing a problem, or scaremongering. And with hindsight, I guess we could have called it something like “Loudness Preview”, or “Loudness Offset” instead – but (a) those are pretty dull names and (b) it’s too late now !
Seriously though, I’m 100% comfortable with the decision. We wanted the name to be thought-provoking and a little provocative, and it’s achieved that. Some songs will sound fine even when they’re mastered loud and turned down online, but that doesn’t mean that knowing it’ll happen in advance isn’t still invaluable when you’re deciding how loud to master. Knowledge is power.
HOWEVER
There are still a few popular misconceptions about the site, and this is probably a good place to clear them up.
#1 – The values aren’t meant to be targets
If your song does get turned down by 8 dB – that’s OK ! Personally I always want to experiment with uploading a less heavily processed version and compare how it sounds – and when I do, I almost always prefer the result. But if you Preview your file on the site and it sounds exactly as you want compared to suitable reference tracks, that’s fine.
(You do need to bear in mind the fact that super-loud masters may cause clipping of the decoder when they’re streamed, though.)
#2 – You don’t need the same value for every song
The loudest masters I make get reduced in level by 2 or sometimes 3 dB on YouTube, and I’m fine with that. The quieter ones may only be turned down a fraction – that’s OK too. We don’t want our songs to all sound the same, we just want them to sound great.
(Remember to make your decision using the Preview function, not just the numbers, though)
#3 – Spotify is the ONLY platform to use a limiter – and ONLY when turning things up
None of the streaming sites add extra compression or limiting when reducing the level of a song. If something sounds weak or lifeless or distorted after a big level reduction, that’s because of the way it sounds, not the streaming service.
(Spotify does use a limiter to prevent clipping when increasing the level of quieter songs, though – and it doesn’t always sound great. So watch out for positive LP if this concerns you.)
But now we come back to the title of this post:
If the LP values don’t all have to be the same, and it’s OK to get big “penalties” if you like the way it sounds, and the only change is a clean level decrease…
Does the Loudness Penalty really matter AT ALL ?
YES.
Here’s why.
Firstly, not all streaming services measure loudness in the same way. In particular, Spotify doesn’t use LUFS, it uses ReplayGain. So sometimes a song can be played back as much as 3dB quieter than you would expect by measuring the LUFS !
That’s a huge difference and important to know about, so if you see a big difference between the YouTube and Spotify results on Loudness Penalty, make sure you Preview and check you’re OK with the result. If not, the strategy I discuss here could help.
Secondly, if your song does get a big penalty, you may be missing a trick. There’s a big difference between sounding loud and just measuring loud. I recommend you try backing off the raw level and seeing if the extra peak headroom allows you to get even more aggression, snap and bite into your loud song.
And thirdly, the bigger the penalty, the more risk that extra distortion will be added when the file is decoded. Spotify recommend your peak level should be no higher than -2 dBTP if the loudness is above -14 LUFS. That’s playing it very safe, but some of the loudest files can decode with peak levels of +3 or 4 dBTP, and all that gets clipped straight off again in many mainstream players. So even if you’re in love with the super-dense sound of your master, it might be better to turn it down yourself before uploading, to ensure a cleaner decode.
And finally, it’s just sensible to test your music before you let it out into the world. Most of my masters sound great to me online, without giving a moments thought to the numbers when I’m working on them. But occasionally something happens that surprises me, and in those cases it’s far better to be forewarned and forearmed, in my experience.
The Loudness Penalty is real – it affects the way people hear our music, and that affects the way they feel about it, and that’s important. Loudness normalisation is here to stay – the sooner you understand it and start working with it instead of fighting against it, the better your music will sound.
But then, I would say that !
(To try Loudness Penalty for yourself, for free, click here. And if you’d like to use it in realtime, from within your DAW, check out the plugin version, here.
Does the ‘Loudness Penalty’ really matter ? is a post from Ian Shepherd's: Production Advice Subscribe to the newsletter for great content from the archives, special offers and a free interview - for more information, click here