What is LUFS?

LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It measures how loud audio sounds to a human ear — not how big its peaks are. Understanding LUFS is the difference between a master that competes on streaming and one that feels quiet no matter how hot the peaks are.

Why LUFS replaced dBFS

dBFS ("decibels below full scale") measures peak level only. Two songs at exactly 0 dBFS can feel wildly different in perceived loudness. LUFS applies a filter that mimics human hearing (the ITU-R BS.1770 K-weighting), then averages loudness across a window. The result correlates with what people actually feel.

Three flavours you'll see

• Integrated LUFS — average loudness over the whole track. This is what Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Tidal normalise to (around −14 LUFS).
• Short-term LUFS — average over a 3-second window. Useful for spotting quiet verses or overly hot choruses.
• Momentary LUFS — 400 ms window. Reacts fast, ideal for live mixing.

Streaming loudness targets

Most major platforms turn everything down to roughly −14 LUFS integrated. If you master at −7 LUFS, streaming will pull you back by 7 dB. All you did was crush your dynamics for nothing.

How to hit the target

Open the Easy-DAW Master screen. Play your loudest section and watch the LUFS meter settle. Adjust the master limiter ceiling and master fader together until the integrated reading holds around −14. Use your ears — a dynamic master at −16 often sounds better than a smashed one at −9.

The one exception

Club and cinema mixes have different targets. YouTube is roughly −14 LUFS; Apple Music is −16; broadcast (EBU R128) is −23. Master for the loudest destination and let normalization handle the rest.