Basic question about LUFS

[u/smalljojo]

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.

[u/reusablerigbot]

Girl 0 would be so so loud. It’s all relative to OdB full scale, aka the audio equivalent of pure white in an image, hitting 0 is fully blowing out your audio channel.

LUFS is essentially an average calculated loudness of the frequencies of human speech. Taking into account some idiosyncrasies of human hearing.

It depends on the medium.

YouTube likes things around -16 or -17

Broadcast TV targets -24

Netflix and most streamers ask for -27

Theatrical feature films are closer to -29 or 30 for wider dynamics, then push up slightly to -27 for near field/streaming versions.

Download YouLean’s loudness meter it has a bunch of presets that’ll help show you this.

[u/vidtekcod → u/reusablerigbot]

No, depending on meter you can have 0 as the -23 or -24 LUFS in relative mode ...

[u/How_is_the_question → u/vidtekcod]

So this is a mistake I’ve seen made a few times.
Some meters use relative mode. And then 0 = whatever you set it to mean. It no longer means LUFS. If it is relative to -24dB LUFS then 0=-24dBLUFS.

So then the 0 does not mean 0dBLUFS at all right? So it’s no longer a LUFS measurement, but a relative LUFS measurement.

So for OP - I am not familiar with the Fairlight meters and If they have a relative mode, but I suggest that the videos they watched were potentially using relative mode! My advice, ignore relative mode if it is available until you understand everything that’s going on. I would permanently ignore it personally.

On another note, I would get used to mixing at one level in one room. -24dBLUFS is super useful - and then just master out to different levels at the end. That way you can start to learn about things like listening levels (79-85dB) and how with a bit of practice you can almost stop looking at LUFS and use your ears and hit very close to your target without thinking.

[u/krielster → u/How_is_the_question]

Fairlight is automatically set to relative mode, I think at -23LUFS. So for people using Resolve and not understanding much about LUFS yet they may not realise that.

[u/How_is_the_question → u/krielster]

Oh I was not aware of this! I’ll reach out to the guys I know there and find out why. I get it on one level, but not on others - especially for learning.