Confusion with Loudness Effect

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tommyfs
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 10:16 am

Confusion with Loudness Effect

Post by tommyfs »

I’ve been using the Match volume effect in Goldwave for years, treating various parts of the wav file to get the volume I want, usually shooting for about -16.5 db. Now V6.30 uses the Loudness effect instead, whether you select Match Volume or Loudness. Not much info on its use in the Help files, and I want to understand more than just the concept of Loudness – what should I know about LUFS, Final Peak and Final db? Also is the single value shown above the “Calculate Loudness Range” the sum of the left and right channels shown below? Finally, the presets “Default” and “Standard” don’t seem to change a thing. Any light that you can shed on all this will be much appreciated.
DougDbug
Posts: 2172
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Re: Confusion with Loudness Effect

Post by DougDbug »

WOW, cool! I hadn't upgraded yet and I didn't know about this...

You can research LUFS, but it's a broadcast loudness standard that takes into-account that our ears are less sensitive to short-duration sounds and high & low-frequency sounds.
Final Peak
1.0 is 100% = 0dB. (after the effect is applied)
and Final db?
That's the (pre-calculated) peak dB level after applying the effect.
Also is the single value shown above the “Calculate Loudness Range” the sum of the left and right channels shown below?
It's not exactly the "sum" (because decibels are logarithmic) but it's the current-combined left & right loudness (before applying the effect).

I looked-up LRA (which you get after clicking "calculate") and it's a measure of dynamic range or dynamic contrast.

I don't know about the presets but you can re-define them, delete them, or add your own, etc.
JackA
Posts: 154
Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 5:52 pm

Re: Confusion with Loudness Effect

Post by JackA »

tommyfs wrote:I’ve been using the Match volume effect in Goldwave for years, treating various parts of the wav file to get the volume I want, usually shooting for about -16.5 db. Now V6.30 uses the Loudness effect instead, whether you select Match Volume or Loudness. Not much info on its use in the Help files, and I want to understand more than just the concept of Loudness – what should I know about LUFS, Final Peak and Final db? Also is the single value shown above the “Calculate Loudness Range” the sum of the left and right channels shown below? Finally, the presets “Default” and “Standard” don’t seem to change a thing. Any light that you can shed on all this will be much appreciated.

Here's how I evaluate Loudness. You can have Loudness as Amplitude or you can have Loudness as duration. Many singers had echo of some sort added to the recordings, this alters the duration, but also make it appear Louder. You can record a pin dropping on the floor. Yet, record 10,000 of them dropping simultaneously, and the pins will sound like a crack of Thunder!

Jack
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