Loudness Meter
The Loudness Meter is an audio meter for monitoring loudness, according to the EBU R-128 standard.
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To open the Loudness Meter, select .
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Momentary loudness bar
Displays the loudness of a 400 milliseconds slice that is evaluated every 100 milliseconds.
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Short-term loudness bar
Displays the loudness of a 3 seconds slice that is evaluated every second.
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Integrated loudness bar
Displays the average loudness. This bar is evolving over time, because it makes an average of the loudness by measuring 400 millisecond slices every 100 milliseconds.
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Target loudness
The purple vertical line corresponds to the target loudness defined in the Loudness Meter Settings dialog. The purple shadow around it corresponds to the acceptable deviation.
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EBU R-128 Loudness Range (LRA)
This loudness range displays the difference between the estimates of the 10th and the 95th percentiles of the loudness distribution. The lower percentile of 10 % can, for example, prevent the fade out of a music track from dominating the loudness range. The upper percentile of 95 % ensures that an unusually loud sound, such as a gunshot in a movie, is not responsible for a large loudness range.
The EBU R-128 loudness range, the dynamics range of the short-term loudness, and the dynamics range of the momentary loudness help to decide if dynamic compression is necessary, by giving instant feedback about the dynamics (too low, good, too much).
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Dynamics range of the short-term loudness
This loudness range monitors the recent minimum/maximum loudness measurements to provide a hint about the short-term dynamics.
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Dynamics range of the momentary loudness
This loudness range monitors the recent minimum/maximum loudness measurements to provide a hint about the momentary dynamics.
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Loudness curve
This curve shows how the loudness is distributed in a song. The audio signal is divided into small blocks, and the loudness of each block is computed. The curve informs about how often audio events with a given loudness appear in the file in comparison to all other events. If the curve has a peak, the given loudness often appears in the song.
The curve is always normalized. The peak shows which loudness is the most represented in a song. The curve is related to the LRA as the LRA starts at the left part of the curve and ends at the right part, with a 10 %/95 % tolerance.
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Gate LED
The Gate LED lights up when audio is discarded from measurement. The EBU standard discards audio below a specific level, relative to the average loudness.
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Numerical values of the bars
This section shows the numerical values of the bars. The values in brackets are the loudness ranges.
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True Peak LED
The True Peak LED is based on a true peak analysis and lights up when clipping is detected.