★ LUFS Normalization for All Audiojungle Tracks a.k.a. How To Stop Destroying Your Music?

Hi everybody! Thanks for checking this thread!

This idea is not new but still, I think it is really interesting.

Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music - they are all doing loudness normalization and seem to be happy with it.

If you are not sure what it means, I’ll quickly explain.
If somebody squashed his track trying to achieve insane loudness hoping that people will perceive his track as sounding better than quieter tracks (which happens often), then it won’t work anymore on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Music. Because all tracks are normalized in a way that they sound at the same volume.

Why normalization can be a great thing on Audiojungle?

For Authors:

  • We won’t need to destroy our music and kill musical dynamics by manipulations that we’re using to achieve huge perceived loudness. Excess compression, clipping, reducing lows, raising 2-4 KHz, etc. This is especially important for acoustic and orchestral music. Sure, some genres won’t sound good without heavy compression (some EDM, Rock genres), and such processing still can be done. But you will do this to achieve a musical goal, and not because you want to get more loudness. A huge difference, as you can see.

For Buyers:

  • Better music quality overall. No unnaturally squashed tracks. Producers won’t do that because it simply wouldn’t make sense anymore. Nobody will be able to stand out in any way by doing that.

  • A buyer won’t be shocked by playing a ridiculously maximized track when he comes on Audiojungle after listening to normalized Spotify for 2 hours.

  • Loudness consistency while browsing Audiojungle. No need to search for a level fader (it somehow not existing on AJ) when you jump to a Dubstep track after a classical one.

For All:

  • More pleasant music creation - Better quality - Easy and calm browsing

How can it be implemented?

Well, it can be implemented FOR SURE. So it is not a question right now, I think.

Let’s discuss the idea itself. Pros and cons. Do you think it worth it? And why this idea could be bad? Do we need it? Maybe this will be the last thread on the subject on AJ :slight_smile: Thank you for participation!!

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It has long been time to stop this race of loudnesses. :thinking:

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Looks like nobody is interested in this. I expected to see more engagement from authors because this topic is important to us. I often see complains regarding loudness war and squashed tracks in other threads on Auduiojungle forum and in other places. However, it is quite silent here in this thread :blush:

has been brought up quite a few times before. I think it is a great idea personally.

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Hi Robert!
Yes, I remember your posts. Glad you also see the importance of this topic! I agree with your position. Unfortunately, there were some non-productive conversations, you know what I mean :blush: I hope this thread will contain some reasonable posts from authors regarding the topic :pray:

So guys, join and let us know what you think! :blush:

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+1 good idea and a very good pitch @AudioTrend! In my opinion this could make a more smooth listening experience for the customers. Concerning us, authors, we all know what pumping up a track(and keep a decent quality) means :slight_smile:

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Thank you for joining us, MARiAN! :blush:

+1 for “Smooth listening experience”. This is definitely a perfect phrase here!

And this is really weird that we are still dealing with “pumping up a track(and keep a decent quality)”!

Essentially, what are we doing? We are putting a lot of hard work making beautiful dynamics, mixing, making everything emotional and pleasant.

What next? Then we have to KILL our sound (wow!) in order to achieve that RMS (or LUFS) level because people actually FEEL that louder is better. So you have to destroy, distort everything to make it even louder than the competition. What if your track would be better with more lows, or with more dynamics? No! Just destroy it, we need a bigger digit on that RMS meter!

We all hate doing this (well, most of us) and we can easily put an end to this practice.

And we know that it works because normalizing LUFS is a world standard already. Hugest companies with the biggest cash applying it and feeling great! It was not dictated by the fleeting fashion, it was dictated by the urgent need.

Audiojunge is one of the leaders in background music. But why should it fall behind?

Thanks for your attention :blush:

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nice idea! this could be intetesting… sometimes when you build a pack… it’s possible to find different loudness levels between tracks… packs are mostly approved, but client could get some strange sensations about these differences.

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I am interested man! Regrettably, Envato has stopped checking forums for ideas, there have been plenty of good initiatives and excellent business improvements brought by authors. Mostly the ideas to prevent thefts, duplicated accounts, duplicated tracks, etc.

So, with that said, I would love to see some lufs standard in AJ, but my hopes are underground tho.

Thanks for sharing!

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Hi, MusicLFiles!

Agree with your point! A buyer should get exactly what he heard on the site.

Hi, MeGustaMusic!

Thank you for your post!

I see what you mean.

But I strongly believe that if this thread will get huge with a lot of authors supporting this idea and/or complaining about the current “loudness situation”, Envato will eventually pay attention.

I’m sure that this idea should be openly supported by many authors in order to be heard by the staff.
So I’m calling to action guys! We are doing it for all authors and buyers :blush: So it’s a big deal!

And there is also no reason not to try that! We have great chances to be heard if we get loud (in a good way I hope)! :blush:

Besides, it never hurts to have a good discussion anyway.
So I understand your skepticism for sure.
But we must try! Because we won’t get anywhere if we won’t. It may sound cheesy, but this is true :blush:

At the end of the day, we are talking about the idea with a serious foundation, a world standard. So I’m sure, the staff will notice :+1:

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Word!
I totally support this idea, it is super necessary. That is why every major streaming service is working with an specific LUFS setting. If Audiojungle is aiming to sell our songs to professional creators, they should try to “normalize” (pun intended ) this situation!

+1 for this idea

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Great idea, I agree with you @AudioTrend, hearing over pumped tracks is not a good thing, I think to the music some decades ago, that sounds today again fresh and with the right dynamics, why this competition for destroy the sense of music?

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Glad you are with us, MeGusta! :smiley:

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Hi, Folberaudio!
A good point here!
I think that we love natural dynamics because it is there to shape every tiny emotional change. So it is a pure evil to work for hours or days on this “emotional breathing”, and destroying it in the end!

To be objective, I have to mention again that some genres are hardly imaginable without over-compression and clipping. Modern dubstep/brostep, for example. It would just sound weak without that. And it is totally FINE because this is what partly this genre is about. Even so, LUFS normalization wouldn’t hurt this genre at all as it is not restricting anything.

Some of the best-selling genres on Audiojungle are Corporate, Cinematic, Folk. The genres are primarily acoustic. And often we can hear a not very pleasant and somewhat destroyed sound. So we need normalization more than anybody!

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I think the best option: Aj creates a table “RMS and LUFS” every style of music and all follow it.

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Who is going to enforce that?

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pinkzebra ?

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This is a big deal, and it has been brought up here in this forum a couple of times before, including this thread that I started myself. My understanding is that it will become a priority for Envato only when customers start to complain about “loudness penalty”. And that will take a while. But it will happen.

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Hi EvgenM!

Thank you for joining the discussion! :blush:

This could be a nice idea if we wanted to achieve different volume for different genres.

But the main advantages of global LUFS normalization are simplicity and a comfortable and predictable experience for our buyers.

What I mean by simplicity is that we as authors can totally focus on what is important - great arrangement, good dynamics, and cool sound. We wouldn’t need to care about this technical and mostly not creative process of loudness maximization that btw often makes us feel not too good. Besides, there is sometimes a thin line between genres. Just let the system do its job and we are fine. If we are talking about the automatic system.

Otherwise, reviewers could do this. They would have a simple preset for all so it wouldn’t even lengthen the review process too much.

The best option, in my opinion, is an automated script that does this simple and purely technical thing.

If we will ask authors to follow this, it may cause some issues, I’m afraid. Not highly experienced authors may do it incorrectly, or in some cases, intentionally try to boost the loudness. That would lead to soft-rejections and eventually to a longer review process.

What I mean by comfortable and predictable listening experience is that a person can be sure that he, or she, can set a volume knob once and never care about it again. Otherwise, a client will have some negative emotions while choosing what to buy from our tracks. Which eventually may lead him to leave the site. It’s probably an extreme situation but we don’t want our clients to feel uncomfortable being on Audiojungle anyway.
And this is definitely one of the greatest advantages of the global loudness normalization.

Sorry for such a long reply. But I hope I was able to deliver my point :blush:

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