Quick-reference metrics & ranges
| Term | What it measures | Typical studio range |
|---|---|---|
Integrated LUFSLUFS (EBU R 128 / ITU-R BS.1770) | How loud your whole track actually sounds to human ears from start to finish (closer to 0 is louder; −6 LUFS is a loud club master, −14 LUFS is standard streaming volume). | −16.0 to −5.5 LUFS |
Short-Term & Momentary LoudnessLUFS-S (3s) / LUFS-M (400ms) | How loud your track is right now in a 3-second window (Short-Term) or a 0.4-second instant (Momentary) on a live DAW meter – which is why your drop looks 2–3 LU louder on a live meter than the whole-song Integrated LUFS number. | 1.5 to 3.5 LU hotter on drops than Integrated LUFS |
Loudness Range (LRA)LRA (LU) | How big the volume difference is between the quietest parts of your track (like an intro or breakdown) and the loudest parts (the drop or chorus). | 3.0 to 12.0 LU |
True Peak (dBTP)dBTP | The real highest volume spike of your track when it plays through actual speakers or gets converted to MP3/AAC – showing whether it will clip even when your DAW meter says it stopped at 0 dB. | −2.0 to +0.5 dBTP |
Crest Factorratio (peak ÷ RMS) | How punchy and snappy your drums and transients are compared to the body of the track – a higher ratio means open and punchy, a lower ratio means heavily compressed or squashed. | 2.0 to 6.3 |
RMS LeveldBFS (RMS) | The raw average energy of your audio signal across all frequencies, with no filter applied. | −18.0 to −7.0 dBFS |
Loudness-Matched Playback−12 / −14 / −16 / −18 LUFS | Automatically turning down loud mastered tracks during playback so they play at the same volume as your quieter unfinished mix – so a louder track doesn’t trick your ears into thinking it sounds better. | Attenuation only (0.0 to −10.0 dB) |
10-Band Frequency Profile20 Hz – 20 kHz (10 octave bands) | A 10-step tonal snapshot of a song from 20 Hz up to 20 kHz, showing how much bass, midrange, and treble the track has overall. | 20 Hz to 20 kHz |
+4.5 dB/Octave Spectral Tilt+4.5 dB/oct | Tilting the frequency graph so a well-balanced song looks like a flat horizontal line instead of sloping downhill from bass to treble – making it easy to spot if your bass or highs are too loud. | +3.0 to +4.5 dB/oct |
±1σ Standard Deviation Corridor±1σ (Median ±1 SD) | The shaded “sweet spot” zone around a group of reference tracks showing where most of those songs sit in each frequency band. | ±1.0 to ±3.5 dB per band |
6-Band Solo & Crossover FrequenciesSub / Low / Low-Mid / Mid / High-Mid / High | Buttons that let you listen to just one slice of the sound – like only the sub-bass, only the vocals/mids, or only the hi-hats – while muting everything else. | 20 Hz – 20 kHz (6 bands) |
Mono, Side (L−R), and Phone MonitoringL+R / L−R / 300–4,000 Hz | One-click listening checks that let you hear how your track sounds on a single speaker – a phone, a smart speaker, or a club system summed to mono (Mono), what is happening only on the left/right edges (Side), or how it translates through a midrange speaker (Phone). | Mono sum, Side diff, 300–4,000 Hz bandpass |
Camelot Wheel Code1A–12B | A simple number-and-letter code for musical keys (like 8A for A minor or 8B for C major) so you can find tracks in the same or compatible keys without memorizing music theory. | 1A to 12B (24 keys) |
BPM (Beats Per Minute)BPM | How fast or slow the track’s beat is (for example, 124 BPM for house or 174 BPM for drum & bass). | 60 to 180 BPM |
Lossless Audio Formats (AIFF, WAV, FLAC, ALAC)1,411–4,608 kbps PCM / Lossless | Full-quality studio audio files that haven’t had their high frequencies or details shaved off the way MP3s do. | 16-bit/44.1 kHz to 24-bit/96 kHz |
Sample Rate (44.1 / 48 kHz) & Bit Depth (16-bit / 24-bit)44.1–96 kHz / 16–24 bit PCM | Sample rate (kHz) sets the highest frequency a file can capture, while bit depth (16-bit vs 24-bit) sets the dynamic headroom between the loudest peak and the quietest background hiss – 24-bit doesn’t make a song louder, it just gives you a lower noise floor while mixing. | 16-bit/44.1 kHz (music) · 24-bit/48 kHz (studio & video) |
Composite Label Match Score0–100% (40 / 25 / 20 / 15 weights) | A 0–100% score showing how closely your finished track matches the typical EQ balance, loudness, BPM, and genre of a record label’s releases in your library. | 0% to 100% |
Cue, Alt, Cutdown (60s / 30s / 15s), and Stinger1M01 / 60s / 30s / 15s / Sting | The set of versions a TV, film, or sync composer delivers for one piece of music: the full track (cue), stripped-back versions without lead melody (alts), shorter 60/30/15-second edits for ads (cutdowns), and a short 3–7 second ending hit (stinger). | 0:03 stinger to 3:00+ full mix |
Loudness, headroom, and dynamic range metrics
EBU R 128 and ITU-R BS.1770 measurements that tell you how loud a track plays, how much peak headroom remains before clipping, and how much punch is left after limiting.
Integrated LUFS (LUFS (EBU R 128 / ITU-R BS.1770))
How loud your whole track actually sounds to human ears from start to finish (closer to 0 is louder; −6 LUFS is a loud club master, −14 LUFS is standard streaming volume).
Technical definition: Integrated LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) is the average perceived loudness of an entire audio file from start to finish, measured using ITU-R BS.1770 K-weighting and EBU R 128 relative gating. K-weighting is the filter LUFS uses: it cuts the very low end (below about 40 Hz) and lifts everything above about 1.5 kHz by roughly 4 dB, closer to how we hear loudness.
In the studio: Streaming platforms normalize playback around −14.0 LUFS (Spotify, YouTube, TIDAL) or −16.0 LUFS (Apple Music Sound Check), while club and electronic masters commonly sit between −8.5 and −6.0 LUFS. ARADAR measures integrated LUFS on import and displays it in the Library table, Player bar, and Inspector.
How to use it: Filter your library to the label or genre you are working in and check where those releases sit. If your unmastered bounce reads −18.0 LUFS and the references in your genre sit around −8.0 to −7.0 LUFS, you can see the exact gap you would need to bridge through mix arrangement, bus saturation, or master limiting – or decide how much headroom you want to leave for a mastering engineer. See LUFS loudness targets guide.
Short-Term & Momentary Loudness (LUFS-S (3s) / LUFS-M (400ms))
How loud your track is right now in a 3-second window (Short-Term) or a 0.4-second instant (Momentary) on a live DAW meter – which is why your drop looks 2–3 LU louder on a live meter than the whole-song Integrated LUFS number.
Technical definition: Short-Term Loudness (LUFS-S) measures K-weighted loudness over a sliding 3.0-second rectangular window, while Momentary Loudness (LUFS-M) measures a 400-millisecond window without EBU R 128 gating.
In the studio: Because an arrangement includes quieter intros, breakdowns, and outros, a song’s full-file Integrated LUFS (which ARADAR displays in the Library and Player bar) usually reads 1.5 to 3.0 LU lower than the Short-Term LUFS peak you see during the loudest drop in your DAW.
How to use it: When you check a reference in ARADAR and see −8.0 LUFS Integrated, keep in mind its loudest chorus or drop is likely hitting −6.5 to −5.5 LUFS Short-Term. If you loop just the drop in your DAW, expect your live Short-Term meter to sit 1.5–2.5 LU above the full-track Integrated target. See LUFS loudness targets guide.
Loudness Range (LRA) (LRA (LU))
How big the volume difference is between the quietest parts of your track (like an intro or breakdown) and the loudest parts (the drop or chorus).
Technical definition: Loudness Range (LRA) measures the macro-dynamic variation of a track in Loudness Units (LU), defined by EBU Tech 3342 as the statistical spread between the 10th and 95th percentiles of short-term (3-second) loudness.
In the studio: A dense club track with a steady arrangement may measure 3.0–5.0 LU, whereas an orchestral cue or progressive arrangement with a quiet breakdown and loud drop often spans 7.0–12.0 LU. ARADAR computes LRA on import and shows it in the Inspector.
How to use it: Compare your track’s LRA against two or three references with a similar arrangement. If your reference measures 6.5 LU because the breakdown drops back before the chorus, and your bounce reads 2.8 LU, it shows your breakdown and drop are sitting at nearly the same loudness – a cue to check whether master bus compression or arrangement density is flattening the contrast. See LUFS & LRA reference guide.
True Peak (dBTP) (dBTP)
The real highest volume spike of your track when it plays through actual speakers or gets converted to MP3/AAC – showing whether it will clip even when your DAW meter says it stopped at 0 dB.
Technical definition: True Peak (dBTP) is the maximum inter-sample peak level of an audio signal reconstructed via at least 4× oversampling, predicting the analog waveform peak between digital sample points.
In the studio: A digital limiter set to −0.1 dBFS sample peak can still produce inter-sample peaks of +0.3 to +0.8 dBTP after digital-to-analog conversion or AAC/MP3 encoding. Streaming specs typically recommend −1.0 dBTP (or −2.0 dBTP for loud masters) to prevent codec distortion.
How to use it: Check True Peak in the Inspector after bouncing a loud mix or master. If you see +0.4 dBTP on a track meant for streaming delivery, you know inter-sample peaks are overshooting 0.0 dBTP; if you see +0.2 dBTP on a commercial club reference in your library, it shows that the mastering engineer chose to clip transients rather than hold a strict −1.0 dBTP ceiling. See ARADAR for mixing & mastering engineers.
Crest Factor (ratio (peak ÷ RMS))
How punchy and snappy your drums and transients are compared to the body of the track – a higher ratio means open and punchy, a lower ratio means heavily compressed or squashed.
Technical definition: Crest Factor is the linear ratio of a track’s peak amplitude to its average RMS amplitude (computed as 10^((peak_dB − rms_dB) / 20)), indicating how much transient headroom remains above the sustained body of the mix.
In the studio: ARADAR stores and displays crest factor as a ratio (such as 3.1). A higher ratio like 3.5–5.0 indicates punchy, uncompressed drum transients and open dynamics; a lower ratio like 1.8–2.5 indicates heavy bus compression, clipping, or brickwall limiting. ARADAR measures crest factor on import and includes crest ranges in label profiles.
How to use it: Look at Crest Factor alongside Integrated LUFS when your drums feel lifeless after limiting. If your references sit at −8.0 LUFS with a crest factor of 3.0 (about 9.5 dB), and your bounce is at −8.0 LUFS with a crest factor of 2.0, you have reached the same loudness by squashing the transients rather than balancing the mix – a signal to back off the limiter or let the kick/snare transients through. See How engineers use crest factor & LUFS.
RMS Level (dBFS (RMS))
The raw average energy of your audio signal across all frequencies, with no filter applied.
Technical definition: Root Mean Square (RMS) level is the unweighted average electrical power of an audio signal in dBFS, calculated across all frequencies.
In the studio: RMS itself is completely unweighted – every frequency from 20 Hz to 20 kHz counts equally. That is how it differs from Integrated LUFS, which applies K-weighting (cutting below about 40 Hz and lifting above about 1.5 kHz by ~4 dB). Comparing unweighted RMS against K-weighted LUFS reveals whether a track’s energy is driven by deep low-end weight or upper-midrange presence.
How to use it: Compare RMS and LUFS between your bounce and a reference, or solo the Sub/Low bands (<120 Hz) on the player bar while looping the drop. If your RMS is much higher than the reference (for example, −8.0 dBFS vs −10.5 dBFS) while your LUFS still reads quieter, your low end below 120 Hz is eating up headroom or is over-compressed relative to the midrange.
Loudness-Matched Playback (−12 / −14 / −16 / −18 LUFS)
Automatically turning down loud mastered tracks during playback so they play at the same volume as your quieter unfinished mix – so a louder track doesn’t trick your ears into thinking it sounds better.
Technical definition: Loudness-matched playback applies a linear gain cut during monitoring so louder mastered tracks play back at the same perceived loudness as quieter unmastered mixes.
In the studio: Even a 0.5–1.0 dB volume advantage makes a track sound fuller in the bass and brighter in the highs (the Fletcher–Munson effect). In ARADAR (Settings → Playback), Match loudness on playback attenuates louder files to −14 LUFS by default (or −12, −16, −18, or a custom target), shows the exact dB cut in the player bar, and leaves quieter files untouched without applying a limiter.
How to use it: Turn on Match loudness on playback when comparing an unmastered work-in-progress bounce (say, −15.0 LUFS) against a commercial reference (−7.5 LUFS). With both playing at the same perceived volume, you can judge whether your kick, vocal, or high-end balance actually differs, rather than reacting to a 7.5 dB loudness jump. See How to level-match reference tracks.
Frequency analysis and player-bar listening checks
Spectral balance curves, standard-deviation corridors, and mono/side/band monitoring filters used to evaluate tonal translation.
10-Band Frequency Profile (20 Hz – 20 kHz (10 octave bands))
A 10-step tonal snapshot of a song from 20 Hz up to 20 kHz, showing how much bass, midrange, and treble the track has overall.
Technical definition: A 10-band frequency profile divides the audible spectrum (20 Hz to 20 kHz) into ten octave-spaced frequency bands to summarize a track’s long-term tonal balance.
In the studio: ARADAR analyzes every imported file across ten octave ranges – 20–40 Hz, 40–80 Hz, 80–160 Hz, 160–315 Hz, 315–630 Hz, 630–1,250 Hz, 1.25–2.5 kHz, 2.5–5 kHz, 5–10 kHz, and 10–20 kHz – and stores the curve locally so you can overlay multiple tracks or compare a bounce against a label’s median curve. On the player bar, six solo buttons (Sub / Low / Low-Mid / Mid / High-Mid / High) let you audition frequency slices directly while listening.
How to use it: Overlay your bounce against a reference track or label profile in the Inspector. If your 315–630 Hz band sits 3 dB above the reference while your 2.5–5 kHz band sits 2.5 dB below, you have a concrete map of where to check your pad/bass mud or vocal/synth forwardness in your DAW.
+4.5 dB/Octave Spectral Tilt (+4.5 dB/oct)
Tilting the frequency graph so a well-balanced song looks like a flat horizontal line instead of sloping downhill from bass to treble – making it easy to spot if your bass or highs are too loud.
Technical definition: Spectral tilt is a visual slope applied to an FFT spectrum analyzer (+4.5 dB per octave) so that a tonally balanced master reads as a nearly flat horizontal line on screen.
In the studio: On an un-tilted (0 dB/oct) linear analyzer, pink noise drops at −3.0 dB/octave and modern commercial masters drop at roughly −4.5 dB/octave from sub-bass to air. Applying a +4.5 dB/octave visual tilt compensates for that natural acoustic roll-off so low-end build-up or harsh 3–6 kHz peaks stand out immediately.
How to use it: Look at the shape of your track’s 10-band curve as a whole. An upward tilt from left to right points to a bright or thin mix lacking sub/bass weight; a downward tilt from left to right points to a dark or bass-heavy balance.
±1σ Standard Deviation Corridor (±1σ (Median ±1 SD))
The shaded “sweet spot” zone around a group of reference tracks showing where most of those songs sit in each frequency band.
Technical definition: A ±1σ (one standard deviation) corridor is the shaded band around a group’s median frequency curve that spans roughly the middle 68% of tracks in that reference set.
In the studio: Matching a single reference track can mislead you if that song is an outlier. Building a profile from 3 or more tracks on a label gives you the median curve and its ±1σ corridor, showing where the catalog stayed tight (for example, ±1.2 dB in the low-mids) and where it varied widely.
How to use it: Select 4–10 tracks from a label or artist you admire to build a curve, then overlay your track. Pay attention to the bands where the shaded corridor is narrowest – if your track sits outside a tight sub-bass or upper-mid corridor, that’s worth a second listen on your monitors. See Why multiple reference tracks beat a single file.
6-Band Solo & Crossover Frequencies (Sub / Low / Low-Mid / Mid / High-Mid / High)
Buttons that let you listen to just one slice of the sound – like only the sub-bass, only the vocals/mids, or only the hi-hats – while muting everything else.
Technical definition: Band soloing isolates a specific frequency range on the player bar using bandpass crossover filters so you can inspect kick/sub weight, vocal midrange, or top-end air independently.
In the studio: In ARADAR’s player bar, you can solo any of six frequency bands (Sub / Low / Low-Mid / Mid / High-Mid / High) or combine adjacent bands while scrubbing the waveform. Every crossover boundary can be customized in Hz under Settings → Playback, and active band checks stay latched as you switch tracks.
How to use it: Loop the drop of a reference track, click the Sub or Low band on the player bar, and listen to how long the kick tail rings against the sub-bass and how tightly compressed the low end feels. Then click your own bounce in the table – the band solo stays active so you immediately hear how your low end compares.
Mono, Side (L−R), and Phone Monitoring (L+R / L−R / 300–4,000 Hz)
One-click listening checks that let you hear how your track sounds on a single speaker – a phone, a smart speaker, or a club system summed to mono (Mono), what is happening only on the left/right edges (Side), or how it translates through a midrange speaker (Phone).
Technical definition: Player-bar monitoring checks fold stereo playback to Mono (L+R sum), Side (L−R difference), or a band-limited Phone filter (300–4,000 Hz default) to test phase cancellation, stereo width, and small-speaker translation.
In the studio: Summing to Mono reveals phase cancellation on wide synth basses or reverbs; listening to Side isolates stereo imaging and high-frequency width; the Phone bandpass checks whether the bassline harmonic and vocal lead remain audible on laptop and phone speakers that roll off below 300 Hz.
How to use it: Flip to Side while playing a reference to hear whether the producer kept everything below 120–150 Hz out of the sides, or switch to Phone on your own mix to check if the bassline disappears when the sub fundamental is filtered out (indicating it may need upper-harmonic saturation around 400–800 Hz).
Musical key notation, BPM, and lossless audio containers
Harmonic key codes, tempo metadata, and PCM / lossless file containers that determine how cleanly files organize and drag into your DAW.
Camelot Wheel Code (1A–12B)
A simple number-and-letter code for musical keys (like 8A for A minor or 8B for C major) so you can find tracks in the same or compatible keys without memorizing music theory.
Technical definition: The Camelot Wheel is a 24-code alphanumeric key notation (1A–12A for minor keys, 1B–12B for major keys) arranged around the circle of fifths so harmonic neighbors sit one number apart.
In the studio: When you A/B sub-bass and kick fundamentals on a spectrum analyzer, comparing tracks in the same key (for example, F minor = 4A, fundamental at 43.65 Hz) aligns the low-frequency FFT peaks. ARADAR reads embedded key tags and computes the Camelot code automatically in the Library, Player bar, and Inspector.
How to use it: When you start a new project in a key like G minor (6A), filter your ARADAR library by 6A (or adjacent 5A / 7A / 6B). Your reference tracks will play in the same harmonic register as your session, so your ear and spectrum analyzer aren’t thrown off by a 4-semitone pitch difference in the sub-bass. See Full Camelot Wheel key chart (1A–12B).
BPM (Beats Per Minute) (BPM)
How fast or slow the track’s beat is (for example, 124 BPM for house or 174 BPM for drum & bass).
Technical definition: Beats Per Minute (BPM) measures musical tempo as the number of quarter-note pulses per 60 seconds.
In the studio: ARADAR reads embedded BPM tags (`TBPM` in ID3, `BPM` in Vorbis/FLAC, `tmpo` in M4A) on import. When a file has no BPM tag, ARADAR calculates a whole-number BPM from the audio during analysis.
How to use it: Filter by a narrow BPM window (for example, 124–128 BPM) alongside Key so any reference you drag onto your DAW timeline lines up near your project tempo without extreme time-stretching.
Lossless Audio Formats (AIFF, WAV, FLAC, ALAC) (1,411–4,608 kbps PCM / Lossless)
Full-quality studio audio files that haven’t had their high frequencies or details shaved off the way MP3s do.
Technical definition: Lossless audio formats preserve 100% of the studio master’s PCM audio data without psychoacoustic frequency masking or high-frequency brickwall filtering.
In the studio: CD quality (16-bit/44.1 kHz) is 1,411 kbps; 24-bit/96 kHz is 4,608 kbps. AIFF and WAV store uncompressed linear PCM and drag straight into your DAW with no decode step; AIFF also carries standardized ID3v2 tags and cover art. FLAC files are smaller at the same quality, though some DAWs decode FLAC on import.
How to use it: When downloading tracks from Bandcamp, Beatport, or Qobuz for your library, choosing AIFF gives you full uncompressed 16–20 kHz air on the analyzer, embedded artist/label/key/BPM tags on import, and zero-wait drag-and-drop into your DAW. See AIFF vs WAV vs FLAC for reference tracks.
Sample Rate (44.1 / 48 kHz) & Bit Depth (16-bit / 24-bit) (44.1–96 kHz / 16–24 bit PCM)
Sample rate (kHz) sets the highest frequency a file can capture, while bit depth (16-bit vs 24-bit) sets the dynamic headroom between the loudest peak and the quietest background hiss – 24-bit doesn’t make a song louder, it just gives you a lower noise floor while mixing.
Technical definition: In linear PCM digital audio, sample rate (in Hz or kHz) is the number of amplitude snapshots captured per second (bounding the Nyquist frequency to half the sample rate), and bit depth is the number of bits used to quantize each sample’s amplitude (approx. 6.02 dB of dynamic range per bit: 96 dB for 16-bit, 144 dB for 24-bit).
In the studio: CD and download stores distribute music at 16-bit/44.1 kHz or 24-bit/44.1–48 kHz, while film, TV, and sync libraries standardize on 24-bit/48 kHz. ARADAR plays and analyzes all standard sample rates and bit depths natively without resampling your files on disk.
How to use it: Bounce your work-in-progress mixes at 24-bit (44.1 kHz or 48 kHz to match your DAW session) so quiet tails and headroom stay clean before mastering; when importing into your DAW, check that your DAW project sample rate matches the file if you want to avoid real-time sample-rate conversion. See Audio formats for reference tracks.
Label matching and media composer cue terminology
Studio terms for multi-axis label comparison and sync/film cue deliverables.
Composite Label Match Score (0–100% (40 / 25 / 20 / 15 weights))
A 0–100% score showing how closely your finished track matches the typical EQ balance, loudness, BPM, and genre of a record label’s releases in your library.
Technical definition: ARADAR’s Label Match Score is a weighted 0–100% similarity index comparing one of your tracks against a record label’s catalog profile across four axes: frequency profile (40%), integrated loudness (25%), tempo (20%), and genre tag (15%).
In the studio: A label’s frequency profile is built once you have at least 3 analyzed tracks on that label in your library. If a label has no frequency data yet, the score is based on the other measurements. The score highlights which labels in your collection share a similar sonic footprint before you log a demo submission.
How to use it: Select a finished demo in My Tracks and inspect its ranked Label Matches. If a target label shows a high tempo and loudness match but a lower frequency score, open the frequency overlay to see which bands diverge from that label’s releases and decide whether it is a creative choice you want to keep or a mix balance issue to tweak. See ARADAR for music producers.
Cue, Alt, Cutdown (60s / 30s / 15s), and Stinger (1M01 / 60s / 30s / 15s / Sting)
The set of versions a TV, film, or sync composer delivers for one piece of music: the full track (cue), stripped-back versions without lead melody (alts), shorter 60/30/15-second edits for ads (cutdowns), and a short 3–7 second ending hit (stinger).
Technical definition: In film, TV, trailer, and production-library scoring, a cue is a numbered musical piece (such as 1M03) delivered alongside alternate mixes (underscore, narrative, no-lead), timed broadcast cutdowns (60s, 30s, 15s), and short 3–7 second stingers (buttons/bumpers).
In the studio: By default, ARADAR skips files under 60 seconds so drum loops stay out of producer libraries. Media composers can set Skip files shorter than to 30 seconds or Off in Settings → General to import 30s, 15s, and 5-second stingers, filter by Duration (Under 1:00), and verify that cutdowns match the integrated LUFS of the full mix.
How to use it: Bounce all versions of a cue into one watched folder, sort by title so `1M03 Main`, `1M03 Underscore`, `1M03 30s`, and `1M03 15s` sit side by side, and check the LUFS column. If the 30s cutdown reads 2.5 LUFS hotter than the full mix because of a dense transition edit, you can spot and trim it before delivery. See How media composers organize cues, alts & cutdowns.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Integrated LUFS and RMS?
LUFS measures how loud a track sounds to human ears, while RMS measures raw unweighted electrical energy across all frequencies. K-weighting is the filter LUFS uses: it cuts the very low end (below about 40 Hz) and lifts everything above about 1.5 kHz by roughly 4 dB, closer to how we hear loudness, and EBU R 128 gating ignores silent sections. Two tracks with the same −14.0 LUFS reading can have different RMS values depending on how much sub-bass energy they carry.
Why does ARADAR use a +4.5 dB/octave tilt on its 10-band frequency profile?
Without a tilt, every normal song looks like a downhill ski slope from bass to treble, making the chart harder to read at a glance. Technically, human hearing sensitivity and acoustic energy drop off as frequency rises, so a balanced master slopes downward at roughly −4.5 dB per octave on a flat analyzer. Applying a +4.5 dB/octave visual tilt rotates that natural slope so a balanced track reads near horizontal, making low-end build-up or upper-mid harshness much easier to spot.
What does a ±1σ corridor tell you when comparing against a label profile?
It shows you the label’s normal ‘sweet spot’ across multiple songs instead of forcing you to copy one single track. When you build a profile from three or more tracks on a label, ARADAR calculates the median dB level in each of the 10 frequency bands along with the ±1σ (one standard deviation) spread, where the middle ~68% of the label’s tracks sit. A narrow corridor in the sub-bass and low-mids tells you the label’s masters are tightly consistent there, while a wider corridor in the highs indicates more room for variation.
Why should True Peak stay below −1.0 dBTP when mastering for streaming?
Even if your DAW meter stops at −0.1 dB, converting your song to Spotify or Apple Music’s streaming formats can push hidden peaks over 0 dB and cause distortion. Technically, lossy encoders (AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, and MP3) reconstruct the continuous waveform and apply psychoacoustic filtering, which shifts phase and can push inter-sample peaks 0.3 to 1.0 dB higher than the PCM sample ceiling. Leaving −1.0 dBTP (or −2.0 dBTP on loud masters) of True Peak headroom prevents clipping during transcoding.