About mastering loudness

[pascual]

Hi friends. Hope this finds you all well.

So as I’m finishing some mixes and “home mastering” to release in different streaming platforms, I find myself checking the master chain output and trying to end up somewhere close to the -14 lufs recommended by Spotify and other streaming services. I tend to be happy with a finish product ranging between -10 and - 12 LUFS. And the uploaded tracks sound up to par with other music on the streaming platforms, but the rendered track that I end up with in my music library (iTunes, recordbox) sounds way quieter that other music I own. Same with the tracks that I upload to bandcamp, and SoundCloud.. Should I be mixing/mastering two or more different versions of my songs depending on the destination?
I super appreciate any tips on this.
B.

[legendCNCD]

"Master no louder than -10 LUFS short-term at the loudest moments (with True Peaks no higher than -1)"

I think it depends on the genre, you might want to check few of them and see whats their LUFS is etc. I personally think one version is enough and if the tune needs it I'll crank up the chain, but not going over -10 LUFS.

https://www.mixinglessons.com/lufs-loud ... ull-scale/ for example

[Azbest]

Squeeze out the most loudness you can out of the track without damaging the sound. Forget the bullshit streaming loudness guidelines, aim for levels that suit your track.

[kritikon]

Last time I checked things like YouTube and Spotify etc most of the (mainstream electronic dance) stuff I checked was still way over the recommended -14 LUFS. Some of the channels will normalize if you're over the -14 but it hasn't stopped anyone squashing heavily. In fact, even other genres such as mainstream pop were way under -14 too. Adele for example was as heavily squashed as any trance tune. U2 stood out as being not heavily squashed but obviously their mixes are heavily squashed before it gets to master so same result really. The -14 guideline seems to be mostly ignored AFAIK. You tube gives stats and you can very quickly check that most music on there is normalized by at least 5dB (I.e. way under -14).

As mentioned...squash it until the sound goes kersplat. Most others do.

[Frankie.T]

Master your music to sound the best possible, not to please recomendation.
Every professional don't care about that for a reason

Do not trust me, check the top songs and analyze them