Hey guys ! Sorry in advance for the long post.
So i'm about to release my first song, and I've been wandering on the internet for solutions but could not find any... I had my track mastered by doctormix.com. The integrated loudness was about -9 LUFS for the first version they sent me. But since I've read plenty of times that with loudness normalization applied on the majority of streaming services (except soundcloud), I asked them if they could lower the int. loudness to -13, which they did. So I'm planning to release this version with great dynamic range on YouTube. It sounds great, and I won't have to worry about sounding less loud than others. BUT I made some tests and uploaded the two versions they gave me (even a third one I "re-mastered" with massive limiting with like -7 LUFS of int. loudness) and all three sound different in level. I can hear it, it's not the same level. And when I right click > stats for nerds, the normalization says it's 100% each time and nothing in parenthesis. So does it take a long time for YouTube to apply normalization ? Or is it simply a bug and I should re-master my track to be louder ?
And when it comes to Soundcloud, what do you think about uploading the version with heavy limiting in order to sound louder ? (you damn loudness war) Also, for the downloadable version, should I release the dynamic-rangy version or on the contrary the loud version ?
When I say loud version, some might get really offended but I basically applied to the master they gave me a glue compressor with these settings : -6.35 dB threshold, 7 dB makeup, ratio 4, attack 1 ms, release 1,2 s. Is it bad ? I can hardly tell the difference between the two versions, obvious volume variations put apart...
When I compare these two tracks with other tracks on Soundcloud, the -6.5 LUFS is way more in the same level as the others. The version with DR might sound a bit better but is way too quiet...
Thank you guys !
EDIT : A few pictures :
Submitted October 21, 2017 at 01:39PM by hazy_hope https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/77uf3h/how_long_does_it_take_for_youtube_to_apply/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Saturday, October 21, 2017