Check programme against -23 LUFS
Drop a file and read its integrated loudness against the -23 LUFS target EBU R128 sets for broadcast delivery. The number beside the target is the gain change that lands the programme exactly on it.
What R128 requires
The recommendation fixes three things: programme loudness at -23 LUFS, a maximum true peak of -1 dBTP, and loudness range as the descriptor for how much loudness varies across the programme. Measurement follows ITU-R BS.1770, which is the algorithm this meter implements at revision 4.
The point of the standard is consistency between programmes. Before loudness normalisation, a viewer adjusted volume at every commercial break; anchoring everything to one measured figure removes that.
Why the gates exist
Two gates keep silence out of the measurement. An absolute gate discards anything below -70 LUFS. A relative gate then discards anything more than 10 LU below the ungated level of what remains.
Without them, a drama with long quiet passages would measure far lower than it sounds, and normalising it to target would deliver dialogue much too loud. A meter reporting an ungated figure is the usual reason two tools disagree about the same file.
Headroom against streaming
-23 LUFS leaves 23 dB above the target before full scale. Broadcast needs that room because it carries drama, film, and live material with genuine dynamic range through one chain.
Music streaming at -14 LUFS is handling programme that has already been compressed hard, so it can sit closer to the ceiling. Comparing the two figures directly says more about the material than about the standards.
True peak
The meter oversamples 4x to find peaks between samples, which is what dBTP measures. R128 sets the ceiling at -1 dBTP, leaving room for the value changes that lossy encoding and sample rate conversion introduce downstream.
Other targets
Music streaming aims at -14 LUFS, Apple Music at -16, and podcasts at -16. To compare all four at once, use the full Loudness Meter.