What are LUFS: How to use them in your Mixing and Mastering

What are LUFS? If you’ve landed here there is a good chance you already have an idea, buts it is a scale of loudness, or volume. LUFS have become an important to compare audio content to compare loudness. LUFS stands for LOUDNESS Unit Full Scale.

How many is Optimal LUFS for Mixing or Mastering?

Cut to the chase: whats the optimum LUFs for Music? Short Answer: -12 LUFS.

So how many LUFS should my track be after mastering my track?

It depends, but maybe about -14 to -10 but don’t kill yourself if you have a mix you like that is outside that range for some reason.

Gonna try to make this short and sweet cuz i gotta make a stinky. so here we go.

Here is why.

Loudness Normalization Standards Across Platforms Average around -12 LUFS

here is how you can tell. As of 2023: loudness penalty dot net  says my -12 lufs track is ummm perfect. check. it out.

Understanding How many LUFS to make your Mixes

Can it depend? Yes. You can have a great mix that is -10 LUFS or a great sound at -14 LUFS it just depends on the song, the dynamics, the amount of “blank” space and many other factors. You can use YOULEAN loudness meter on your master-bus to see how your LUFS are stacking up, and if youre shooting for a standard of -12 LUFS for music and maybe -21 LUFS for dialog you should be in good shape.

If you’re mastering for streaming, you can shoot for 8-14 LUFs depending on content. Hip Hop or Rock music may have less dynamics than say an acoustic recording with a lot of loud sections followed by soft sections, or quiet parts at the beginning, end or middle of the song.

Platforms are normalizing their audio, so keeping a consistent result is hard. Use LUFS to master your audio to a good level.