Why You Should Use the Correct LUFS Setting for Your Podcast

Speaker: 00:00:00

(clapping)

Speaker: 00:00:02

You're listening to One Minute Podcast Tips.

Speaker: 00:00:05

I'm your host, Danny Brown.

Speaker: 00:00:07

And each episode brings you snack-sized tips

Speaker: 00:00:09

to be a better podcaster.

Speaker: 00:00:10

And if you enjoy the show,

Speaker: 00:00:11

you can now support with a one-off donation

Speaker: 00:00:13

at oneminutepodcasttips.com/support.

Speaker: 00:00:17

And now, this week's episode.

Speaker: 00:00:19

When it comes to the listening experience of your podcast,

Speaker: 00:00:26

it's important to understand LUFS

Speaker: 00:00:28

and why you need to use the correct one.

Speaker: 00:00:30

So what is LUFS?

Speaker: 00:00:31

Well LUFS stands for Loudness Units Full Scale

Speaker: 00:00:34

and basically it's a standardised way of measuring loudness.

Speaker: 00:00:37

Now I won't get too technical on this

Speaker: 00:00:39

but basically there's two types of LUFS,

Speaker: 00:00:41

short term and integrated.

Speaker: 00:00:43

Short term gives us a peak reading

Speaker: 00:00:44

of the last three seconds of audio

Speaker: 00:00:46

while integrated is an average of the whole audio mix.

Speaker: 00:00:48

And it's how we measure loudness for film,

Speaker: 00:00:50

music streaming, radio and podcasting.

Speaker: 00:00:53

To get an idea of how important LUFS is,

Speaker: 00:00:56

ask yourself if you've ever listened to an episode

Speaker: 00:00:58

and the ads have been much louder than the episode audio itself or vice versa.

Speaker: 00:01:02

Ideally you want every part of your episode at the same level.

Speaker: 00:01:05

Whether that's you and a guest, your ads, your intro, your outro etc.

Speaker: 00:01:09

It makes it a lot more comfortable to listen back to.

Speaker: 00:01:11

Generally there are two settings to work by.

Speaker: 00:01:14

-16 LUFS for stereo and -19 LUFS for mono.

Speaker: 00:01:17

Now a lot of editing software has LUFS settings built in.

Speaker: 00:01:20

I use Hindenburg Pro for example and when I export the audio I can set it to -16.

Speaker: 00:01:25

and I do this for all my ads, sponsor messages, intro, outro, music and more.

Speaker: 00:01:30

This ensures that every part of my audio is exactly the same level.

Speaker: 00:01:33

There's some great resources for LUFS,

Speaker: 00:01:34

including a detailed explanation of what they are and how to use them,

Speaker: 00:01:38

and I'll leave links to those in the episode show notes,

Speaker: 00:01:40

so be sure to check them out too.

Speaker: 00:01:41

Until the next time, happy podcasting.

Speaker: 00:01:44

If you're enjoying One Minute Podcast Tips,

Speaker: 00:01:49

leave a review at oneminutepodcasttips.com/review

Speaker: 00:01:53

and help others like you find the show too.

Speaker: 00:01:55

Until the next time, happy podcasting.

Speaker: 00:01:57

(upbeat music)

Speaker: 00:01:59

(upbeat music)