Check track loudness in LUFS online

What LUFS is

LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) is a loudness unit that follows how people hear, not just signal level. The signal first goes through a K-weighting filter (less low end, a bit more top — like our hearing), then its energy is averaged. That's why a track with a heavy sub and one with bright hi-hats can peak at the same level and still differ in LUFS.

The method is defined in ITU-R BS.1770 and EBU R128. Streaming services and broadcasters use it, so LUFS is the loudness figure that matters for a release.

Integrated, short-term and momentary

The report shows three kinds of loudness, each with its own job:

• Integrated — the average loudness of the whole track with a gate, so quiet breaks don't pull the number down. Platforms normalize by it.
• Short-term — loudness in a 3-second window. The short-term maximum shows the loudest moment (usually the chorus or the drop).
• Momentary — a 400 ms window that catches short bursts: hits, accents, vocal shouts.
• LRA (Loudness Range) — the spread between quiet and loud parts in LU. A small LRA (under 4 LU) means a dense wall of sound; a large one means lively dynamics.

How loud should a track be

There's no single “correct” number — it depends on the genre and where people will listen. Reference points: streaming services normalize to −14 LUFS (Apple Music to −16), TV and radio under EBU R128 to −23 LUFS. Modern rap and EDM masters are often louder, from −10 to −6 LUFS: the platform simply turns them down, but the dynamics lost on the limiter don't come back.

Next to the number, the report has a loudness curve for the whole track and a histogram, so you can see whether loudness sits on a flat shelf or the track breathes. The “Tonal balance” block compares the track with its genre range across real Stream-Q tracks.

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