Metering in Reaper

B

BriamJH

Member
I have set up my master meter as follows. Have I used the correct settings for both the TCP meter and the floating mixer meter. It is not clear to a newbie which settings e.g. Loudness choices and Meter (e.g. rms etc.) to use. I am happy with the display offset part. Many thanks, Brian

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If you don’t know what you’re doing then why are you doing it? If we don’t know what you’re trying to do how can we tell if you’ve done it right? I personally think you should set it back to default and ignore everybody who said you need to change it.
 
I don't understand everyone's obsession with setting LUFS as the "standard". Peak and RMS have worked perfectly fine for years. Integrated LUFS is fine for evaluating an entire track, start to finish, but not an "in process" setting. Plus, in practice, RMS and short term LUFS aren't really that far apart most of the time.

Make the mix sound the way you want and THEN look at the LUFS reading to see it it's grossly out of whack. I seriously doubt that anyone will care if your LUFS is 11.5 or 14.2, as long as you have a really good sounding / interesting track.

We used to adjust the settings for albums with a knob that said "volume". If the album wasn't loud enough, it was easily fixed.
 
Sorry guys, I did not mean to upset anyone - just a simple newbie question. To suggest that I should not do something if I do not know what I am doing seems to be contrary to the spirit of any forum. I wish to LEARN how to do things - hence my questions. I assume that experienced folks have decided on their settings e.g. rms, LUFS etc. I had assumed also that they would be willing to pass on their knowledge (as they usually do !). How can I get better if I stop trying to learn. If you do not wish to help me then please do not lecture me. I am just a humble student of mixing - I have limited experience. Hence my regrettable request for assistance. Sorry I asked for help. Please accept my sincere apology. Brian
 
No need to apologize. I think the issue is not learning how to change things in Reaper as much as knowing why you are doing it and if it's the right change. We've had people trying to set tracking levels with LUFS because that's the "standard" that streaming platforms have set as targets. But those standards are for more of an average level, not for setting track levels. I've been using Reaper for years, and never bothered to change to LUFS readout. Peak readings are far more important to me when tracking. Plus LUFS wasn't even created when I started digital recording.

At one point the prevailing goal was to make your song the loudest on the block so it stood out. This made things inconsistent when you have 100 different artists, so the platforms began to set reference levels. If you sent something that was massively compressed and at maximum level, then the platform would basically turn down the volume so that it was more consistent with other songs. In doing so, it often changed the perception of the song, so their answer was to tell clients to aim for a target, so they didn't need to adjust things. LUFS is the most recent measure of "loudness" so that was chosen rather than relying on peak level or RMS. In addition, you probably need to look at the LRA (loudness range).

It might help you to read this primer on LUFS from Izotrope. It does have guidelines of using it to set master levels (not track levels).

 
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