Loudness Standards
As producers mix their audio productions they mostly pay attention to the meters, checking the level at an appropriate amount with no clips or monitoring where the audio peaks. During the mixing stage, adjustments of frequencies can boost levels to probably reach the peaks that need to be altered at differing points. The Loudness Unit within meters that are being monitored by the producer represents the audible differences of certain frequencies against the others (Byers, 2015). Although this is inhabited in the studio mainly, there are broadcast standards in terms of amount of loudness allowed or permitted for the industry. Although differing ranges, one of the most widely acknowledged standard is the ITU BS.1770 that is used globally with standard concerns of true-peak level measurement and certain measuring that is based on specific frequencies. This standard has been acknowledged and adapted globally since being published in 2006 and refined later in the 2010s (TC Electronic, n.d.).
Loudness standards are mostly important to electronic music producers as they play their tracks mostly in a club setting and have to abide by the loudness norm of the playlists to suit the club without creating different levels across different songs, which can ruin the vibe of the club itself and the people enjoying in it. Dynamic range is a thing of myth in these sectors as these producers prefer to have a headroom that hits the ceiling to get the most of their tracks. As broadcast standards of industry wide target loudness is -23LUFS, edm producers create their tracks with target loudness of -16LUFS with peaks a -1dB maximum (Berry, 2017).
References:
Berry, S. (2017). How Loudness Standards Relate To EDM And Club Music Production. Ask.audio. Retrieved from https://ask.audio/articles/how-loudness-standards-relate-to-edm-and-club-music-production
Byers, R. (2015). The Audio Producer’s Guide To Loudness - Transom. Transom. Retrieved from https://transom.org/2015/the-audio-producers-guide-to-loudness/
TC Electronic. Broadcast Standards. TC Electronic. Retrieved from http://www.tcelectronic.com/loudness/broadcast-standards/
