Rendered audio loses 18dB

JayTee4303 wrote on 1/8/2024, 2:36 AM

Coming out of Izotope Ozone 7, mastered just the way I like it, peaking at -0.1 dB, 10.5 LUFs, sounds great during project playback.

Rendering at 4k, using a variant of Internet 4k 2180 I saved, that seems to be identical to the factory preset, except... I'm losing 18dB on the audio with the render.

It comes back and works fine when I use the factory preset, but I need to know what's going on here. Not sure why, I just don't like un-answered questions.

What do I want to look harder at, in the render settings, to get this cleared up?

Comments

mark-y wrote on 1/8/2024, 9:50 AM

Look at your Master Bus or Surround Bus. The Master Bus controls Output, and if it is different than your upstream settings, that is the first place to look.

Set Gains at Zero, and uncheck Dimming and Downmix.

On the Surround Bus, set the parameters to correct legal levels for the standard / scale indices in your locale.

Note: -0.1dB Peaks, -10.5 LUFS (full scale??) are illegal for all broadcast and streaming delivery worldwide.

So, if you attempt to deliver such material, it is likely to incur a Loudness Penalty on return from upstream servers. Is that what you are noticing?

This suggests that your issue may correct itself as you read and gain more experience.

For your convenience, I have listed the legal international broadcast limits, as well as the "consensus" internet loudness standard for you below:

  • US ATSC/A85: -23LKFS FS, -2dBTP
  • EU EBUR128: -23LUFS FS, -1dBTP
  • INTERNET (pretty safe): -15 LKFS/LUFS FS, -2dBTP
  • Note: -23LKFS ATSC is always legal in EBU locales. The opposite is not always the case.