See exactly why your mix sounds quieter than the pros on SoundCloud.

So we can send you the analysis link, plus occasional tips on mastering DJ mixes. Unsubscribe at any time - one click in the footer of any email.

Yes. We measure to ITU-R BS.1770, the same K-weighted integrated loudness specification that SoundCloud, YouTube and BBC R128 use to normalise playback.

WAV and AIFF at any size. MP3, FLAC, M4A, OGG and WEBM up to 250 MB. Mixes longer than 30 minutes are analysed on the first 30 minutes.

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SoundCloud, Mixcloud and YouTube all normalise playback to -14 LUFS - they turn loud uploads down and quiet ones up. The catch: raising volume isn't the same as mastering. A mix mastered to -14 LUFS sounds denser and more controlled at the playback level because compression and limiting have tightened the dynamics; an un-mastered -20 LUFS mix just gets turned up, not improved. To sit equal to the pros in the feed, master to -14 LUFS before uploading.

The number you see is integrated LUFS - the average perceived loudness of your full mix, measured to ITU-R BS.1770. If your reading is -14 LUFS or higher (less negative), your mix is at the streaming target - SoundCloud, Mixcloud and YouTube will play it at full level. If it's below -14 LUFS (more negative), platforms will raise the playback volume, but the perceived 'fullness' of a mastered mix will be missing. A reading around -20 LUFS typically means the mix is unmastered or undermixed; -9 LUFS means it's mastered for club playback (too hot for streaming).

Integrated LUFS is the overall loudness of an audio file measured to ITU-R BS.1770 - a K-weighted standard that approximates how humans actually hear loudness, not raw signal level. Streaming platforms use integrated LUFS (not peak) to decide playback volume: SoundCloud, Mixcloud and YouTube all normalise to -14 LUFS integrated. For DJ mixes specifically, integrated LUFS matters because mixes are long - a single loud drop won't game the metric, the platform measures loudness across the entire upload.

True peak (dBTP) is the maximum signal level after digital-to-analogue conversion, measured by oversampling the audio at 4x to catch inter-sample peaks that exceed 0 dBFS. A file that hits 0 dBFS in the digital domain can still clip on playback hardware if the reconstructed analogue waveform overshoots between samples. Mastering for streaming targets -1 dBTP to leave headroom for lossy codec encoding (MP3, AAC, Opus), which can push true peaks above 0 dB and cause audible distortion.

Aim for 10-15 dB PLR (peak-to-loudness ratio) for streaming-bound DJ mixes. PLR is the difference between sample peak and integrated LUFS - higher numbers mean more dynamics, lower numbers mean a denser, more compressed mix. Below 6 dB and the mix sounds fatiguing; above 18 dB and quiet sections will be inaudible on phone speakers. Club masters trend lower (8-12 dB) because limiting is more aggressive; warm/analogue masters trend higher (12-16 dB) because saturation does the loudness work instead of brute-force limiting.