Integrated Loudness Reference Question

WaveLab
1

Greetings
I did an Analyze in the audio editor, global analysis, loudness tab, EBU R-128 tab,and at the top of the list it has the integrated loudness read out of the test, in this instance -8.5 LUFS (reference +14.5 LU)

My question is can anyone explain a little clearer what exactly does the (reference +14.5 LU) mean? I understand its showing LU Loudness Units, but I don’t understand what it means by “reference + 14.5” is that some setting somewhere in wavelab that loudness tests are based on?, I understand the concept of a reference, I just don’t understand where or why this particular reference is showing here.

2

This is a difference with a general reference that you can customize there:

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3

Hi PG …

Just to confirm, the VU meter (I’m old fashioned) in the Level Meter Group remains a ‘traditional’ VU meter (ballistics etc) when this box is checked? Or do I need to uncheck it.

4

Just to confirm, the VU meter (I’m old fashioned) in the Level Meter Group remains a ‘traditional’ VU meter (ballistics etc) when this box is checked? Or do I need to uncheck it.

If you uncheck "VU Meter (Loudness), you don’t get the RMS loudness bars in the meter.
VU stands for “Volume Unit” hence its related to the loudness aka RMS.

Both the peak and loudness bars have their own ballistic.

NB: please open another thread when the topic is different

5

I never quite understood this either. Maybe it’s a European broadcast thing but in the US, and internet in general, I never seen anything referred to at +14 LU or +12LU.

With music it’s always -8 LUFS or -14 LUFS for example, and even broadcast and Netflix standards it’s usually listed as -23 LUFS or -27 LUFS for example.

This setting confuses a lot of new WaveLab users because you have to customize the Loudness Meter to look more “normal” and even if I share my WaveLab preferences with other uses, the ideal preset for the Loudness Meter is somehow a hidden/invisible file that doesn’t loaded when sharing prefs.

6

@Justin: I think rat speaks about the loudness part of the level meter, not the dedicated loudness meter, which is a EBU R-128 dedicated meter.

7

Right, but I’m referring to the original post about the analyze tab which is similar in readings to the Loudness Meter:

“I did an Analyze in the audio editor, global analysis, loudness tab, EBU R-128 tab,and at the top of the list it has the integrated loudness read out of the test, in this instance -8.5 LUFS (reference +14.5 LU)”

I just never see in the real world where people use LU with the plus readings, it’s always LUFS and the minus readings.

8

The point in the analyzer tab is that -8.5 LUFS is 14.5 LU above the reference (which is in that case -23 LUFS).

9

Yes, as Arjan mention, the “plus readings” is to emphasize that this is a positive offset. IOW, this is not an absolute value.

10

thanks so much to everybody for chiming in on this, I think I have a shred of understanding to it, thanks to the thoughtful words shared here.

11

The R128 rules comes for television broadcast and is at -23 LUFS.
For music like Youtube that should be -14 LUFS or for other streaming services -16 or so.
Wavelab is correct, but uses the -23 LUFS as reference.