What is LUFS, in plain English?

LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. Forget the name — here's the idea: it's a number that describes how loud your audio feels to a human, averaged over the whole thing.

Why not just use the volume meter?

The meters in your editor show peaks — momentary spikes. Human hearing doesn't work like that. We perceive an average over time, and we're more sensitive to some frequencies than others. LUFS bakes all of that in: it filters the audio the way your ears do, then averages it with smart gating that ignores long silences. The result is one number that actually matches “how loud does this feel?”

What do the numbers mean?

LUFS numbers are negative, and closer to zero is louder. A whisper-quiet vlog might measure −28 LUFS. A slammed, hyper-compressed ad might hit −8. The streaming world has settled on targets:

• −14 LUFS — YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Spotify
• −16 LUFS — Apple Music, most podcasts
• −20 LUFS — audiobooks
• −23/−24 LUFS — broadcast TV

What about dBTP?

You'll often see a second number, like −1 dBTP (decibels true peak). That's the ceiling for the very loudest instant, measured the precise way digital converters hear it. Keeping peaks under −1 dBTP means no clipping or distortion when your file gets encoded and played back on real devices.

Do I need to memorize any of this?

No. That's the whole point of normalization tools: you bring the video, the tool brings the math. But now when someone says “your video is at −22 LUFS, that's why it's quiet,” you'll know exactly what they mean — and exactly how far off you are.