LUFS / Loudness Analyzer

LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is the modern standard for measuring perceived loudness. Unlike peak meters, it accounts for how the human ear actually hears music.

Streaming platforms normalize all tracks to a target LUFS — so making your master louder just means the platform turns it down.

• Integrated — average loudness across the whole track. The headline number.
• Short-term — last 3 seconds. Useful for spotting choruses vs verses.
• Momentary — last 400ms. Catches dynamic peaks.

dBTP accounts for what happens between samples when audio is converted to analogue. Modern masters target −1 dBTP to avoid clipping after lossy encoding.

LRA measures the dynamic range — the gap between the quietest and loudest sustained sections. Classical music: 15+. Modern pop: 4–8. Over-compressed: under 3.