Loudness for the web? -23 LUFS?

NickHope wrote on 2/17/2012, 7:52 AM

I've been here before, but since then a) all this ITU-R BS.1770-1 stuff has come in, and b) more people are watching web video on TVs.

My last video got criticised as being too loud, and apparently rightly so, since it registers a whopping 9.5dB louder than the recommended -23 LUFS.

I'm currently mastering another video for YouTube/Vimeo which has just a piece of stock music as the soundtrack, with a low loudness range. I'm finding that I have to reduce the volume by a whole 12dB to conform to -23 LUFS. That seems like an awful lot, and I'm a little concerned it will come out too quiet in comparison to viewer's other web output.

Opinions?

Comments

Andy_L wrote on 2/17/2012, 8:35 AM

All the music videos on Youtube are full scale, aren't they? Why shouldn't everything else be the same ??

NickHope wrote on 2/17/2012, 9:02 AM

Well, I got a number of criticisms that the audio was too loud when I did that. Maybe a compromise is in order.

Andy_L wrote on 2/18/2012, 8:55 AM

Okay, but who is making the majority of YouTube videos? Professionals who care about levels standards for broadcast compatibility, or, ...

Have you ever seen a YouTube comment saying "IT'S TOO LOUD!!"

:)