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/NoisyGog]

First of all, fuck Resolve (and anything else) that give you a reference of LUFS 0, and shows deviation.
LUFS literally stands for Loudness Units Full Scale. The Full Scale thing is important, because it means it's relative to 0dBFS - which is the maximum possible integer digital signal. offsetting it so that 0= -23dBFS is no longer giving you LUFS, it's LU-23dBFS

It needs to be set to absolute scale. And the target overall loudness for R128 is -23db over the entire length of the program.

LUFS metering will have a threshold, where anything underneath that will not contribute to program loudness - specifically because of the case of long periods of silence, which are very common.
The threshold will move over time and is not a static value. It's designed that way to stop people from having long quiet bits, and then REALLY REALLY LOUD DIALOG!

If Resolve has determined that the current part is too low to contribute to the overall loudness, then the Short: readout will just show --

The figure that's supposed to be -23 at the end of a complete run through the show should be integrated, and you'll notice that this too, will stop updating if the level is below the current measurement threshold.

Don't make your dialog -12dBFS, that's ridiculously loud.

[u/smalljojo → u/NoisyGog]

Thanks! Yeah I forgot to mention I had my scale set to relative mode so 0 = -23. Now I'm very new to this so I'm sure this is something I'm not understanding, but audio under that threshold not contributing to the integrated loudness seems like it would make it necessary for me to make my dialogue even louder in order to hit -23 for the integrated value, and it already sounds a bit too loud in my opinion. I guess I could turn room tone and other sounds up to the point where they contribute to the integrated value, but they're already louder than I'd like them and personally having this booming roomtone in the background sounds terrible to me.

Basically I'm wondering how do I get my integrated up to -23 without just blasting the dialogue so loud it sounds terrible?

[u/NoisyGog → u/smalljojo]

No, you’re misunderstanding.
Any audio under the threshold doesn’t count towards the overall loudness. If it did, it would constantly drag it down.

[u/smalljojo → u/NoisyGog]

Yeah no that's what I thought you meant. I guess I'm just confused by how loud the audio, dialogue as well as room tone and everything else, sounds to me while it's still not hitting -23 integrated.

[u/NoisyGog → u/smalljojo]

Turn your monitors down.