TV Master – Loudness vs Max peak

[Ty Ford]

Hello Joseph and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

I think what it means is you need a Dolby LM 100, or read up on one.
https://www.dolby.com/professional/pro_audio_engineering/lm100_01.html

Discovery runs all submissions through it and if they don’t make the specs, they kick the project back.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Peter Groom]

Hi
You dont necesarily need a Dolby unit, but you do need a loudness meter. This measures not the peak value, but the listener perceived loudness after such processes like eq and compression. There are various ones on the market such as the dk audio, and tc electric pro tools plug in, and the dolby unit.
This is an age old arguement and problem but one that only in the last few months (in the uK) has resulted in any sort of a clear standard and set of rules.
As I dont know where you are, i cant comment on your platform but would advise looking around at loudness metering.
Peter

Dubbing Mixer

[Joseph Barnett]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses it’s really helpful. We are based in Denmark and create mainly 3D and special effects, however we also offer Grading and editing so more and more we are the last link in the chain. What I’m wondering is our audio masters come in from many different sound companies, is this loudness spec something that they would have implemented already? if so is it relative to the max peak, so if i normalize to say -12dbfs then the loudness should be correct.

We currently use Autodesk Smoke and FCP to deliver our masters. Would you advise any additional software/hardware to ensure correct delivery. Thanks again guys any advice or info you have would be great.

Joseph

http://www.guiltybynature.com

[Ty Ford]

Joe,

Loudness (apart from sheer volume) is a function of RMS to peak ratios. Here in the US, radio broadcasters in particular like to mash the audio with compressors and limiters to make it as loud as they can. Production companies making commercials for radio and TV and music companies do the same.

You can tell a track has been compressed by looking at it on the timeline. The denser the section, usually, the more it has been processed. This means that two pieces of audio with the same peak values can have very different loudnesses. Because there is no standard, if you’re just mixing audio from different sources just by levels, the apparent loudness may be all over the place.

Dolby has a piece of software that you may find helpful.
https://www.dolby.com/professional/pro_audio_engineering/dolby-media-meter-overview.html

Regards,

Ty Ford

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Watch Ty play guitar

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[Peter Groom]

You cant presume that a peak value of anything will be the correct loudness value. Its a function affected by compression primarily.
Peter

[Joseph Barnett]

Hi guys,

Thanks again, they are really helpful comments.

Joe

http://www.guiltybynature.com