Mastering Levels for Electronic Music

Integrated LUFS: This is the overall loudness of the song as a whole. The closer to 0, the louder the song. 

Short Term LUFS: This measures the loudness every 3 seconds. This tells how close to 0 the loudest moments of the song are. 

 

True Peak: If this number exceeds zero, you may hear clipping/distortion when playing the track through the speakers of everyday devices. Zero is the ceiling. Your song is a plant. If your plant grows through the ceiling, it will look pretty ugly coming out the other side. 

 

Peak: This tells the highest momentary sample volume within the digital domain. The closer this number is to zero, the more likely distortion will occur when the sound is converted to the analog domain (which is to say, when listening on every day speakers).

 

Dynamic Range: This tells the difference between the peak value and the short term LUFS value. So, it’s the difference between the loudest and softest sounds, measured every 3 seconds. A value lower than 6 indicates there are moments of the song that are quite squashed.

 

Loudness Range: This measures the difference in volume between the loudest and quietest parts over the entire song. The smaller the number, the more the song remains at the same volume level throughout. Loosely aim between 6-12.