Glossary → Audio engineering
Audio engineering
Loudness normalization
Loudness normalization adjusts audio to a target perceived loudness, measured in LUFS, rather than to peak level — the standard on every streaming platform.
Platforms play everything at their reference (Spotify and YouTube around −14 LUFS; podcast convention near −16 for stereo), turning down louder masters. Mixing to the target, with a true-peak ceiling, is the modern loudness workflow.
Related terms
LUFSLUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) measures perceived loudness — integrating level over time with an…
True peakTrue peak measures the actual analog waveform maximum after digital-to-analog conversion, which can exceed the…
Normalization (peak)Peak normalization scales an entire recording so its loudest sample hits a target level — a uniform gain chang…