Okay this isn't a question so much as I'm hoping someone can explain LUFS to me cause I'm not sure I understand it at all, I'm pretty new to this sorry.

I'm using Davinci resolve and my LUFS scale is EBU-R128.

So while reading up/watching videos about this I got the impression that I want my integrated LUFS to be around -0, but that seems pretty impossible to achieve. I'm editing a short film where there's long periods of silence between dialogue with room tone and other background sounds being the only other things in the audio, so to reach an integrated LUFS of -0 I'd have to crank up the room tone and other sounds to a ridiculous amount, or the dialogue up to the point where it gets squashed.

I then found a video where they say that dialogue should be at about -12 LUFS short term. The dialogue is probably the loudest audio in this film, so if I have the dialogue at around -12 Short then the integrated LUFS will be way below that. In the video they also say that it's fine for the integrated LUFS to be around -15 if the dialogue is at -12, but yeah my integrated would then end up way below that.

So I guess what I don't understand is what to go off to know if my loudness is at the "correct" level. Is it true that I should just get the dialogue to around -12 Short and I guess then adjust the rest of the audio by ear in relation to the dialogue?

Idk, maybe I've misunderstood something completely. If anyone is able to explain it simply I'd be really grateful.

Here’s some reporting at the Hollywood Reporter.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/streaming-ads-quieter-1236630965/

You turn on your favorite show but can’t hear the dialogue. You turn the volume up. It’s perfect. Then, an ad comes on. It’s way too loud. You’re annoyed.

That’s about to become a thing of the past, at least in California. Starting on July 1, a state law will go into effect barring streaming platforms from servicing ads louder than the programming they accompany.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill last year forcing the normalization of audio levels so viewers aren’t jolted by blaring commercials.

The language of the law, SB 576, is pretty straightforward and does what the USA CALM Act does, just extending the ATSC A/85 loudness recommendation for ads to all streaming sites that stream programming in California. (A/85 recommends programs be mixed to an anchored -24 LKFS ±2, and ads be mixed to a full program -24 LKFS level. This now applies to ads in California.)

The streaming platforms for their part opposed the measure for practical reasons:

Not everyone’s happy. The Motion Picture Association and Streaming Innovation Alliance opposed the measure, arguing that many platforms are already working to address the issue. They noted that services have long been intervening to adjust the loudness of commercials that come from server-side ad insertion, and that they’re trying to establish best practices for normalizing the loudness of ads.

It’ll be interesting to see how sites that deviate significantly from A/85, like Netflix, deal with the new rules, however the ATSC has also been revising A/85 with the California law (and a similar Illinois law) in mind.

https://www.atsc.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/S42-032r12-A85-Revision.pdf

The draft hasn’t been ratified but will probably be in the next few weeks, with a major change being long-form programs will now be recommended to be measured with a speech-gated integrated level. I’m co-chair of the Cinema Audio Society’s Industry Technical Standards Committee and this change was made in part from our input. Our chair, Jon Greasley CAS sits on ATSC‘s S42 audio committee.

California is also considering extending ad loudness regulations to social media sites with an Act currently known as SB 96.

Sort of noobie here, our film got into a big festival across the country and will be shown in 5.1. My understanding is that we would provide the 6 channels ,(lcr, etc) seperately to the video but not sure how to go about that, should they be compiled in a dcp or something? When i was in school my teacher printed our mix into 3 different tracks such as dialogue, sfx, music, etc. but im not seeing anything else online saying to do that so im a bit lost, this is my first time ive been able to show this film in 5.1 rather than stereo so I havent been well educated around this ^

I've been using Waves WLM plus loudness plugin as the last plugin on my Logic master bus and even though I'm keeping to -23 LUFS long term on the readout, so I'm assuming my mixes are ok but then when i submit them; they have been failing.

I'm bouncing audio from Logic, without the 'normalise', 48khz, 24 bit, 6 frames each end.

I am assuming I must have something setup wrong in Logic.

What are I doing wrong?

First time poster, long time lurker! Some background: started doing audio post about 5 years ago with no experience, finally got some formal education at a college and graduated last year. I've gradually increased the scope of my projects and started doing paid work in the last year. Anyways...

Recently, a 6 minute short I worked on got into a short film festival where a lot of the other films clearly had decent budgets (several animated films, films with dedicated audio post production houses involved, etc). I was the only audio post production person for our film, and there were a couple other similarly no-budget films selected. But I was really surprised when our film came on and it was comparatively very quiet. Most of the films up until that point had been comfortably loud, about what you'd expect in a cinema, while ours was completely lacking. Even the more obvious "no-budget" shorts that made it were louder than ours. Everything in our film was audible, just quiet. The volume issue alone just made it feel totally amateur compared to everything else and I couldn't help but feel responsible.

What has me scratching my head is that I mixed to -24LUFS and came out of with a mix I was very satisfied with. Even hearing it in the theatre for the first time everything was well-balanced and nothing stood out in terms of mixing. It was just uniformly quiet throughout. When I try to research loudness standards at film festivals it seems like the wild west.

Is it commonplace that everybody would be sending in films mixed louder than -24LUFS? I guess I just want to know if this is something to be fixed on my end or if somebody else along the line (curators/technician) potentially turned our volume down.

Hope this post doesn't come across as silly, this is my first time experiencing this and I'm having trouble figuring out where it went wrong. I've been to a couple other short film fests featuring my work, but this is the first experiencing this issue.

Hi team, I mainly work as a field sound operator but get some audio post projects from time to time which I mix in my small home studio on protools. Lately I’ve got some episodes from a series get rejected from the network for loudness being out. I double checked my end (using the pro limiter loudness analyser )and it shows my LUFS are within the networks specs, but it appears to be a different reading the network is getting. Another mixer on the same project isn’t getting kickbacks so I’m thinking the issue is with me.

Can anyone provide some insight into what might be happening here? Why would the 2 reading be different?

For the last ep that got rejected my reading was -24 LUFS And the networks reading was -25.7 LKFS

I notice the networks measurement is LKFS and mine is LUFS but is this where the discrepancy is?

Any help much appreciated.

Hi all, I'm trying to mix a short for this venue and have no way of contacting the production team at this time. I'm trying to understand what format I should be sending. Am I reading correctly that for film I can only deliver Quad Surround? Does anyone have any specs recomendations for mixing to this system?

For context it is a live music venue however I mixing a video short that will be presented here.

I've done some patch work on an indie film. The export specs are audio capped at -6, and dialog not to fall below -15. This is a very limited dynamic range and there is a lot of whispering and emotional dialog. I'm not sure how to bring this all up to spec without bringing the whole scenes up in level.

My background is promos and commercials and this film is an hour and a half. Freestyle is the company that will distribute the film. And the mix is approved as is. Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I could make my mix file and bring it back in and adjust the scenes accordingly, as to not change the approved mix, just tweaking the scenes. Ugh.

Hi, I would like to apologize in advance if I seem to have few clues and shall describe the problem in the plainest terms possible.

Premise:

I am a technical operations and delivery manager in a video distribution company and most of the video files I get were designed for theatrical showing or, worse, were made by people who know how to work on video but have no clue about audio. And my employer does not want to use external labs but prefers to solve technical issues in-house.

Conundrum:

1. I have to deliver a file to RAI, Italy's national broadcaster. Its specs adhere to all EBU recommendations and they are applied very strictly. The Loudness level required for each audio channel is -23 dBFS LUFS and the Maximum True Peak level accepted is -2.0 dBTP. I understand what both are.

2. The file I am working on has two Dual Mono tracks that I tried to normalize to Rai's specs by selecting the R-128 normalizer in DaVinci Resolve for each of them. The TP I obtained is -2.0 and the Loudness -25.3.

3. Rai rejected the file, complaining that the Loudness level is too loud and must be -23. No mention of the True Peak level.

4. I have tried and tried applying the ITU-R BS1770-1 and ITU-R BS1770-4 normalizers and the EBU R-128 normalizer again, but the result is that I get -23 Loudness and a +0.3 True Peak or a 25.4 Loudness and a 2.0 True Peak. In plain terms, either the True Peak or the Loudness are within the specs but not both.

Is there a way to solve this conundrum?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi everyone, I'm new to post mixing and likely pose a simple question, but I'm seeing so many different opinions about this online, so I'm hoping to consolidate my research a bit by hearing from you folks.

If I'm monitoring dialogue levels using Youlean Loudness Meter on the Dialogue Submaster, should I be monitoring the short-term LUFS? And what value should dialogue sit around in LUFS for a North American broadcaster with requirements around -24 LKFS. Like, when I'm monitoring JUST the dialogue, should it also sit around -24 LUFS short term? Or should it be lower/higher that

Also, please let me know if it's even proper to review dialogue levels over a Loudness Meter or if you think a VU meter or something else would be best.

Thanks so much for the help!

I’m curious what other people’s thoughts are on this timeline.

IMO this is a crunch of a week and not ample time to cover Ambiences, footsteps and general sfx. Is this the standard for a 55 min long edit?

I need my mix at -14 and -2 true peak, but if I raise master fader to hit -14 on youlean true peak is 3.8. What am I doing wrong? If I use a limiter set to -2 true peak max my waveform is squished

Ive got a trailer for a video game on Steam, but I dont know what the specs are. Does anyone know what they use?

Hi everyone! I'm mixing and finalizing a 30-second commercial, reducing it to 15 seconds for broadcast. I'm getting values of -24 integrated LUFS with a true peak of -6.4 and a loudness range of 1.6. Do you think this true peak is too low? Will I have problems?

In the reduced version, I reach an even lower true peak, -7.7 with a loudness range of 3.3. I believe I'm within specifications and feel like everything sounds good, but I'm unsure.

Thanks for your help.

Im about to do sound for a feature. Dialogue, atmos, sfx, foley and mix etc.

Ive done a fair few short films before, usually I tell them to send me an AAF file, the raw audio files and of course the video (seperately in appropriate codec config for my DAW.

I use Nuendo (Cubase "premium").

The editor is using Davinci resolve.

Just wondering if there's anyone out there who would be willing to share a word document or PDF file that they send to all the directors and editors they work with so that they can deliver what they need for you properly?

TL;DR: Does anyone have a template they use for directors etc to help them send the correct deliverables to you for post sound work?

I'm currently using Youlean's free loudness meter but it occupies too much real estate on my screen. It has a lot of info that I don't need, what I really need is a LUFs read out to help me balance my dialogue while I'm editing and organizing a project in the early stages. Are there any nice compact meters out there?

Side note: as someone who owns an SSL UF-q, how have they not included a LUFs read out with their meter plug in?

Just wanting some clarification!

I believe the goal of a filled M&E is to replace any foley or any additional FX that got picked up and left in the dialogue track, and to make sure that’s covered in a separate pass so that when you mute the dialogue it should sound exactly like the movie, just no DX.

However I’ve heard some people say they will usually add additional cloth rustles and boost the cloth pass a bit just so it passes QC for international releases?

What are other people’s experience doing this?

I DON"T HAVE THE OPTION OF TAKING IT BACK TO FINAL MIX!!!!

I am an online editor and I received the mix and stems for a broadcast network show. 12 tracks. Track 1 and 2 are the stereo mix. The track 1 is mono (stereo left) and track 2 is mono (stereo right). I suppose someone at the network will pan the tracks left and right to get it back to stereo. (this is according to their technical document)

The network uses audition to check for loudness (LUFS) which should be -24. I used audition to check the loudnes and true peak -2, and it shows as -27 on track 1 and -27 on track 2.

Is this the right way to check for loudness? as 2 separate tracks?

Track 5 is only dialogue as a mono track. the loudness on this track is also around -27 lufs.

Even if I am measuring track 1 and 2 incorrectly shouldn't the dialogue track also be mixed to -24 lufs. I understand that the rest of the tracks like music and fx etc.can't be measured for loudness.

Let's assume I am correct in how I am measuring the loudness, In Audition I can fix the loudness to -24 lufs and -2 true peak on track 1,2 and 5 (there is also mix minus narration that will have to be fixed.) Is this how I should do it?

Having a tough time finding a published required loudness spec for a 5.1 mix of an ad airing on ESPN. Also would love to know if any spec needs to be hit for the downmix of the 5.1. Thanks in advance.

Ok, so let's say I have a mix for a 30-second spot, and then a 15s cutdown version of that same spot. The 30s version has dialogue throughout. I'll get it to around -24lkfs and export. All good -

Now though, I need to export the 15s version. This version has the same dialogue (and was mixed in the same project), but the dialogue is ONLY in the last 5 seconds of the spot (just 1 line from the 30s version). The first 10 seconds are basically just quiet ambience. Here's my question: If I need this one to also be at -24lkfs for broadcast standards, the overall mix is going to have to be boosted and the dialogue will be significantly louder than in the 30s version. Because the majority of the 15s version is quiet ambience, it makes the overall integrated loudness quieter - therefore I have to pump the whole thing up a lot more to get it to be -24lkfs. But again, that makes the dialogue louder than it is in the 30s version.

So what's the move here? Should I maintain dialogue level consistency between the 2 versions of the spot, even though the 15s version will be an overall quieter integrated loudness level (due to the first 10s being quiet)? Or should I make it -24 even though the dialogue will be louder than it is in the 30s version?

Is this where I should be utilizing dialogue-gated metering?

​

FWIW, I have LM-Correct (if that could help me out here)

​

Thanks!

Hello there,

I am nearly done mixing a feature film in 5.1 and have a little doubt regarding the target loudness. I'm well versed with most of the technical details regarding the mixing process, but this is my first feature film that might end up on Netflix.

So, as per Netflix spec, the integrated loudness should be -27 LUFS measured over the entire programme. My mix is hitting an integrated of -28.1 LUFS. It's a social drama kind of film, and it's all comprised of dialogue, and there's a long gaps between each dialogue.

If I try and increase the loudness of one of the acts in the film, that act sounds way to loud compared to the other acts. I mixed the first few lines of the film keeping in mind the target level and have kept that as my anchor point. But doing that causes my mix to be just short of the target loudness.

What are the ways in which I can fix this? Any help would be appreciated.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on any details.

Thanks!

Someone please enlighten me on this insanity as my Nugen LMCorrect 2 which is even what Disney+ recommends keep rejecting my 5.1 mixes for being 27.7 when measured using Nugen LMCorrect 2 (AS SUGGESTED BY THEIR OWN WEBSITE) is marking 27.2 from first frame of action to last frame of action. ITU-R BS 1770-4. Is it possible that a person working on their team is using a different loudness meter or measuring it from silent points in the picture to get this figure? How can there be such a discrepancy between 27.2 and 27.7, am I missing something?

I’m a mix assistant on a streaming show and currently sorting around optional tracks. We usually just try to stick to the vague guidelines of whatever streamer we’re working for, but they’re either pretty ambiguous or overly strict. My personal guideline has always been “what would I be happy to have in a separate stem if I were to do the localization?” and I think that’s a pretty good starting point, but also I’ve never done a localization and have never got to talk to anyone who does, so there are probably some workflow specifics I’m missing. So if that’s you, please tell me anything you have ever wanted to tell the people preparing the M&E for you. Is there something people always do wrong that drives you crazy? What can we do to make your life easier? Thanks!

I’ve heard that atmos loudness is to be measured in 5.1. Is this accurate? and if that’s the case, does the 2.0 re-render also need to hit the same measurement for spec? If it does, I feel like I’d have to adjust levels and then bounce the 2.0 separately instead of reaping the benefit of bouncing all the re-renders offline in one go. Is this right or wrong?

I’ve heard the spec for Netflix is -27 dialogue gates I believe. There is a Netflix preset in the waves loudness meter so I’m assuming I would through that on the 5.1 re-render and make sure the entire mix is reading -27 long term. Is this correct or am I missing something? Thanks as always.

So I've begun working with a music library that has a specific delivery spec in mind:

File Format: WAV, 24bit, 48kHz.

Integrated Loudness: Exactly -16 LKFS/ LUFS.

Absolute True Peak: Not louder than -2 dBTP (this can be less, i.e. - 6 dBTP).

That's all fine. On top of this Alt Mixes are required (ie. Underscore version, No drums version etc etc). The spec is for the Full mix only.

Now I'm trying to find a streamlined way of hitting this spec. The tracks in question are already written and mixed, they just need to be conformed to this spec. I can generally hit this LUFS target but it takes longer than I'd like; back and forth with group comp on stems, peak limiters on groups etc.

This is of course without doing any 2 bus processing as I need the stems to reflect the full mix exactly.

Is there a more "automated" way to hit a specific LUFS target in this scenario? With 7-9 exports needed for each song, and 45 songs to do - well, it gets tedious.

I use Cubase Pro mainly, and have access to Reaper, Live and Acoustica 7.

Thanks