RoundTripAAC converts to AAC rather than MP3 but it will give you a good reference.Founded in 2007, SoundCloud is an artist-first platform powered by a global community of artists and listeners on the pulse of what’s new, now and next in music culture. Leave at least -1dBTP of headroom when mastering for Soundcloud and try not to go louder than -7 LUFS short-term.Īpples plugin ‘RoundtripAAC’ lets you preview how your track will sound in a lossy format. It will also tell you if your track will clip once it has been converted for streaming.

Louder tracks with higher peaks suffer the worst from the encoding and end up sounding crunchy and lacking clarity. When the track is transcoded, some clipping and distortion can take place. But it's worth noting that they transcode all their audio to 128kbps MP3 for streaming. Soundcloud doesn't normalize the volume playback on their tracks. Soundcloud is different when it comes to loudness. What Is The Best Volume To Use When Submitting Music To Soundcloud? Our plugin LEVELS has a number of features that will help you get a fantastic mix. You wouldn't want your song to lack energy compared to the other tracks, so try to keep the overall integrated LUFS value at -16 LUFS or louder. Don't master too quiet! Amazon music turns louder songs down, but doesn't currently turn the quiet tracks up. For more info on true-peaks check out my post on How To Master Music To Get An Exact True Peak and LUFS ReadingĤ. Spotify streams audio using Ogg Vorbis and AAC files which are almost guaranteed to increase the peak levels.

They suggest -2dBTP of headroom for loud track, as loud tracks have a greater chance of clipping during transcoding. Spotify suggests leaving at least -1dBTP (decibels true peak) of headroom when submitting music so they are optimized for the lossy formats. I personally like to keep my clients music no louder than around -8 short-term LUFS during the loudest part of the song when I'm mastering for Spotify.ģ. Going for a more dynamic and punchy mix will sound better than an over-compressed, distorted master. It will get turned up and potentially limited (to make it louder without surpassing 0.0dB) if it's quieter than -14 LUFS. Your music will get turned down if it's louder than -14 LUFS. Louder music can appear to sound 'better', so be sure to level-match your master when referencing your favorite mixes in the studio (we have an awesome plugin for that called REFERENCE, check it out!)Ģ. You should master your music so it sounds great to you! These figures aren't 'targets', but it's worth remembering that:ġ.

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