Loudness

The Loudness view measures the program the way broadcast and streaming meters do, EBU R128 and BS.1770, and keeps a timeline of it along the song.

The numbers

• Momentary and Short-term are the last 400 ms and the last 3 s, each with its maximum so far beside it.
• Integrated is the whole program since the last Reset, gated as the standard says, the number a streaming service reads.
• Range is how much the loudness moved across the program, in LU.
• True Peak max is the highest level between samples, in dBTP, with a count of how many times it went over 0.
• Peak max is the highest sample since Reset, in dBFS.
• RMS is the mathematical RMS over the last 300 ms, so a full-scale sine reads -3.0 dBFS, the same convention as the level strip.
• DC is each channel’s offset as a percent of full scale, averaged over a second. Bits is the word length the content actually uses, or Float when it lies off the 24-bit grid.

The target and the timeline

Display sets a Target, -9, -14, -16, or -23 LUFS, or Off; the timeline draws it as a line to read the song against. The timeline is kept by song position, so a loop rewrites the same place rather than stacking, and a stopped transport pauses it. Hover it to read a moment’s value.

Reset

Reset, in the bar and in the Display menu, puts every measurement back to nothing: the program, the maxima, the overs, and the timeline. Reset on Play does that each time the transport starts, so a measurement never spans two takes; it is off by default.