Hello all,
I use Auphonic to finish off my podcast projects. It does a great job of boosting and leveling everything out intelligently to an effective loudness level (-16 LUFS).
What are the best plugin options for Vegas to do this in an equally simple way, but within Vegas?
Use the switch ''Normalize'' as a start.
@j-v Does that actually normalize to a specific loudness level, or do you have to judge that by ear?
Later versions of Vegas Pro has a LU/LK loudness meter mode already. Sound Forge Pro 11 &12 has a loudness meter as well.. and measures the important parameters (integrated, true peak, short term, momentary) in the 'Statistics' process, which is light years faster than real time.
For real-time measurement, I like the (free) demo version of ToneBoosters EBU loudness VST plug-in It has ATSC and other modes as well. Very few limitations since there's no rendering involved.
Thanks @rraud. Those are for monitoring loudness, correct? Or, is there a way to just "set it and forget it" with some plugin that will automatically adjust dynamics to hit a desired -16 LUFS?
I currently do not have a newer version of Vegas Pro with the loudness meter, but I'm 99% sure it's just monitoring, so you would have to make changes manually. The same goes for SF Pro.
There was a standalone app that would adjust loudness levels for you, but as I recall the target level was fixed @ -24 LUFS, ATSC A85. It did not have compression or peak limiting either, it merely adjusted the integrated overall volume. There may be something better now-a-days, but I am not aware of any.
You could try the RMS normalizer in SF Pro.. which 'may' get you in the ball park.
BTW, this is a handy on-line analysis app for predicting how much an uploaded file will be lowered (or raised in some cases) when uploaded to YT, Spotify and other A/V posting sites. I think a max length test file (WAV or MP3) must be less than 4 or 5 min.