One Minute Podcast Tips
Why You Should Use the Correct LUFS Setting for Your Podcast
Mon, 26 Aug 2024
When it comes to the listening experience of your podcast followers, LUFS plays a huge role in making it as enjoyable as possible. So what is LUFS and why is it important for your podcast?Mentioned in this episode:What Are LUFS? The Complete GuideHow to do loudness: the LUFS and LKFS FAQ for podcastersLUFS vs dB: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter? - Produce Like A Pro Products I Use for One Minute Podcast TipsNote: these contain affiliate links, so I may get a small percentage of any product you buy/use when using my link.My equipment:Shure SM7B dynamic micTZ Audio Stellar X2 condenser micRodecaster Pro II audio production studioSony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor HeadphonesJOBY Wavo Boom ArmElgato Wave Mic Arm Low ProfileRecommended resources:Captivate.fmSubstackBoomcaster remote interviewingLeave a review:Review One Minute Podcast TipsThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
I'm Danny Brown, and you're listening to One Minute Podcast Tips, the show that helps you be a better podcaster in just a minute a week. If you want more specific tips just for you and your podcast, check out the Magic Mike membership at oneminutepodcasttips.com forward slash support. And now, this week's episode.
When it comes to the listening experience of your podcast, it's important to understand LUFS and why you need to use the correct one. So what is LUFS? Well, LUFS stands for Loudness Units Full Scale. And basically, it's a standardized way of measuring loudness. Now, I won't get too technical on this, but basically there are two types of LUFS, short-term and integrated.
Short-term gives us a peak reading of the last three seconds of audio, while integrated is an average of the whole audio mix. And it's how we measure loudness for film, music streaming, radio, and podcasting. To get an idea of important how LUFS is, ask yourself if you've ever listened to an episode and the ads have been much louder than the episode audio itself or vice versa.
Ideally, you want every part of your episode at the same level, whether that's you and a guest, your ads, your intro, your outro, etc. Makes it a lot more comfortable to listen back to. Generally, there are two settings to work by. Mine is 16 LUFS for stereo and mine is 19 LUFS for mono. Now, a lot of editing software has LUFS settings built in.
I use Hindenburg Pro, for example, and when I export the audio, I can set it to minus 16. And I do this for all my ads, sponsor messages, intro, outro, music, and more. This ensures that every part of my audio is exactly the same level.
There's some great resources for LUFS, including a detailed explanation of what they are and how to use them, and I'll leave links to those in the episode show notes, so be sure to check them out too. Until the next time, happy podcasting. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy One Minute Podcast Tips, be sure to share with your friends and other podcasters so they can enjoy it too.
Until the next time, happy podcasting.