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When mastering for YouTube, it's always a good idea to master to the loudest part of your audio or video.
The volume of your content doesn't necessarily determine its quality or attract more viewers and subscribers. It can sound better depending on the quality of your content, but it's not going to attract more people to your YouTube channel and encourage them to subscribe. That all depends on the quality of your content.
How’s it going, everyone? Sean here with In Inlustris Audio, and today we’re starting a short mini-series on how to improve your audio for the YouTube platform. This series will teach content creators, filmmakers, or audio engineers working for clients how to enhance their audio for YouTube. By doing so, they can gain more followers, build brand trust, and create better content for their content marketing strategy. To kick things off, I’ll be teaching you how to make your videos sound as loud as the professionals. So, let’s get started!
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It’s no secret that YouTube loudness is standardized at around -14 LUFS (or simply “LUFs,” as you’ll often hear in the audio industry). In a nutshell, LUFS represents the average volume of your master track or all the combined elements of your video’s audio. However, here’s the golden rule I want you to take away from this video: just because you can go to -14 doesn’t mean you absolutely should. It depends on your video.
For example, when you upload a video to YouTube with a track that is mastered louder than -14 LUFS, let’s say -10 LUFS, YouTube will compress your audio to bring it back down to -14 LUFS. This compression process can actually damage your audio by squashing your transients and reducing the dynamic range of your track. On the other hand, if you upload a video with a lower volume, let’s say -20 LUFS, YouTube won’t limit it to -14 LUFS like other streaming platforms such as Spotify. Instead, it will maintain the original volume without compression. This means that a video quieter than -14 LUFS will preserve its dynamic range and transients. If you were to compare these two tracks side by side on YouTube, the compressed one would sound worse, even though it might be louder than the uncompressed one.
Now, let’s jump into Pro Tools, and I’ll show you how to master your tracks for YouTube. But before that, I want to share a quick tip that will give you more insight into what YouTube does to videos that are either too loud or too quiet. You can do this with any video on YouTube, not just the examples I’m showing. Right-click on the video, click on the small “i” icon at the bottom (Stats for Nerds), and it will provide detailed information about the video. Look for “Volume/Normalized” and you’ll see two percentages. The first percentage represents the location of the volume slider, and the second one indicates the original loudness of the uploaded audio. For instance, if the original loudness is three decibels higher than -14 LUFS, the second percentage will show the effects of compression to bring it down to -14 LUFS. This information will give you a clearer understanding of how YouTube handles loudness.
Let’s move on to another video that is below -14 LUFS. Again, go to Stats for Nerds, and you’ll notice that the content’s original loudness is, let’s say, -6.7 decibels below -14 LUFS, which means it was uploaded at around -20 or -21 LUFS. When you set the volume slider to 100 percent, the audio is played back at its original volume, approximately -20 or -21 LUFS. The main point here is that just because you can go up to -14 LUFS doesn’t mean you should always aim for that. It depends on your content. For instance, Sam the Cooking Guy’s videos have a volume around -20 or -21 LUFS, but he still has millions of views and subscribers. The volume of your content doesn’t necessarily determine its quality or attract more viewers and subscribers.
It can sound better depending on the quality of your content, but it’s not going to attract more people to your YouTube channel and encourage them to subscribe. That all depends on the quality of your content. So, real quick, guys, if you’re getting any value out of this video, please go down and like and subscribe. It honestly helps me out a lot and enables me to make more free videos and content like this for you guys in the future, so that you can improve the quality of your own content and content marketing strategies.
Now, moving ahead, I will show you exactly how you can get your audio up to loudness standards, whether you want to go for -14 LUFS or if you want to see how I master audio for YouTube. I have prepared a mix here of another one of my videos, which is an XLR explanation video. I will link it in the card above and in the description below if you want to watch it later.
To achieve this, I use two tools. The first is a basic limiter that comes default with Pro Tools, and the second is a free plugin called “You Lean Loudness Meter,” which anyone can download for free. I’ll provide the link in the description below in case you want to use it for yourself. This plugin shows you your integrated volume as you are mastering, so you know when you’re approaching -14 LUFS or any other target level, like -20 or -21 LUFS, which is what Sam and I usually aim for.
When mastering for YouTube, it’s always a good idea to master to the loudest part of your audio or video. For example, if you have a short film where someone is speaking in the beginning, but there’s an explosion later on, if you master the talking part to -14 LUFS, the explosion will push the overall video volume higher, potentially exceeding -14 LUFS. However, if you master to the loudest part, such as the explosion, even if the talking part becomes quieter, the entire video will stay within the desired range of -14 LUFS specifically for YouTube.
Let’s loop the loudest part of my video here, which happens to be the outro, and as it’s playing, I’ll be setting the ceiling of the limiter and adjusting the threshold to bring up the overall volume. Keep an eye on the integrated range mentioned earlier.
“That’s it for today, guys! Thanks for watching. If you received value from this video or learned something new, please like and subscribe down below. It really helps this channel and enables me to make more videos like this one. Also, feel free to leave any questions you still have about XLR cables or cables in general in the comments, and I’ll do my best to reply as soon as I can. Thanks so much, and as always, I’ll see you in the next video.”
There we go! Now your audio is basically mastered for YouTube, with the loudest part brought up to about -20 LUFS, which is where I typically master my videos. If you want to target -14 LUFS, you can adjust accordingly. Just as a quick example, I’m going to master this next part to -14 LUFS so you can hear the difference.
“That’s it for today, guys! Thanks for watching. If you received value from this video or learned something new, please like and subscribe down below. It really helps this channel and enables me to make more videos like this one. Also, feel free to leave any questions you still have about XLR cables or cables in general in the comments, and I’ll do my best to reply as soon as I can. Thanks so much, and as always, I’ll see you in the next video.”
There we go! Now it’s mastered to about -14 LUFS, which is the limit for YouTube’s loudness. This is as loud as the video can go before compression from YouTube starts to take effect. If you want, you can go back and listen to the previous version at -20 or compare it to this -14. In my opinion, the -14 is too compressed for my taste; I prefer the -20. It gives the audio more room to breathe. But again, it depends on what you want for your content and video.
Remember, guys, YouTube has a set threshold of -14 LUFS for video audio loudness. Any video above -14 will be compressed back down to -14, potentially squashing your transients and reducing your dynamic range. On the other hand, any video uploaded to YouTube that is quieter than -14 will not be limited or brought up to -14. When preparing the audio for your YouTube videos, always ask yourself what is best for your video and content. Please use your ears when preparing your audio. If it sounds bad when mastered to -14 LUFS, then bring it down. Just because you can go up to -14 doesn’t mean you should.
That just about wraps it up for today’s video, guys. Please remember to like and subscribe if you found any value in it. It helps me continue making free videos and content like this for you guys, so you can continue to improve your content for your YouTube videos. Also, go ahead and let me know in the comments any questions you still have about YouTube loudness, mastering, or YouTube loudness in general, and I’ll do my best to reply as soon as I can. Thanks so much for watching, and as always, I’ll see you guys in the next video.
