Experts, kindly interpret this to me :o/

This isn't a Bob Katz K-Meter. The "K-Weighting" in the EBU loudness spec is something different and better than what Katz came up with. But to be fair, Katz did say that he wanted some sort of perceptual weighting in his system. He just never pursued it.

But the EBU Loudness meter correlates fairly well with Katz' K-Metering system. So if you put the EBULoudness meter on your master buss, and mix so that its Integrated Loudness shows -14, then you're in K-14 territory. Likewise, -20 on the EBU meter is in K-20 territory. (And as an aside, the TB EBU meter is a CPU hog.)

Have you read the EBU articles that are linked to on the ToneBoosters site? Do you have any other specific jargon questions?

Thanks for the comments. What specifically arouse my curiosity was the possible possibility :o/ to match the loudness of different songs in a more consistant and accurate way than what I've been able/capable to do this far. Also, my better half is a radio journalist, and she sometimes brings work home, and I thought it could be simply interesting to play with this toy. The price sure isn't an obstacle. . I'm a keen SPAN fan, anyway.

bitflipper

I have two tools that are useful for matching loudness between songs in an album.

Don't you have two other tools as well?  You know, the ones on either side of your head? 
 
Serious question, though.  I just picked up T-Racks in the ongoing group buy.  The metering suite contains what IK claims to be a "perceived loudness" meter.  Anyone have thoughts on whether this thing is something worth paying attention to?

I don't use T-Racks so I can't comment on those meters. But I will say that I am generally dubious of "perceived loudness" metering, because they usually don't tell you what that actually means. Is it based on RMS values, and if so how wide are the RMS windows? Is it based on a weighted curve, and if so what kind of curve? And what exactly do they mean by "perceived loudness" anyway? How do they avoid skewing the results when there are loud transients in an otherwise quiet mix?

What it ultimately comes down to is being able to correlate what the meters are telling you to real-life experience. I stopped using the VST version of the TT Dynamic Range meter because I could not reliably correlate what it was showing me to what I heard. I found that I got more consistent results by visually interpreting SPAN's meters rather than relying on an automated "perceived loudness" interpretation.

Of course, I'm thinking in terms of CDs and MP3s, not broadcasting. That's a whole 'nother arena, with different technical needs. The EBU standard is very specific about how loudness is calculated. I'm just not convinced of its applicability in the recording and mastering world.

Some interesting technical information on loudness (related to broadcasting) here:

http://www.orban.com/meter/Technology.html

(Note that the free Orban meter is not VST.)


One of my many projects for myself (that I may never get around to) is to play around with building some meters I like in Reaktor....