Peak vs RMS volume: why should you care?

hey everyone this is oscar from underdog and today we're going to learn some technical basics about volume and loudness and we're also going to learn how you can compare your track to a reference track without always getting jealous of how loud that reference track sounds so first just two minutes of some technical basics then a quick practical application and that's gonna be it for today let's get into it [Music] [Applause] [Music] before we go any further like the video subscribe to the channel and maybe sign up for one of our classes underdog brussels or sign up for a one-on-one coaching with me in the link below so first we need to understand three terms peak volume rms volume and dynamic range imagine you're making a track and it looks like this the absolute loudest volume that it ever gets we call that peak loudness peak volume and it's measured in decibels and it's represented here with this green line that's the volume that's usually going to show up on most meters that are reading the volume of this signal however it's actually a pretty bad indicator of how loud we think a sound sounds subjectively speaking there's a second volume measurement that you need to know and that's called rms which stands for the words root mean square but you can just forget about that and actually it's sort of a nerdy way of saying it's the average volume of the signal over let's say about the last half a second or so so in this diagram we can add a blue line here which represents more or less the average volume of the signal the rms it's always going to be lower than the peak volume and it's going to be somewhere between the loudest part of your signal and the quietest part of your signal the distance between the loudest part of your signal and the quietest part of your signal is also referred to as the dynamic range of your signal so in this first example we could say that this sound has a large dynamic range it's a very dynamic signal or a very uncompressed signal now here's a little secret about how our brains actually work our brains are hardwired to always think that louder sounds better subjectively better and particularly louder in terms of rms not so much in terms of peak but in terms of rms now this is a tested principle so what you do is you take two identical sounds like bit for bit identical sounds make one of them a decibel or two louder play them in front of an audience and ask them which of the sounds they prefer they will always choose the louder sound but then you ask them why they prefer that sound and they'll make up some some reason they'll trick themselves into thinking that the louder sound is warmer that it's more punchy that it's more analog that it's crisper that it's brighter that it's any of these kind of really subjective words just ways to justify it being louder so let's consider a second example here's another song that peaks at the same volume as the previous song however when the signal reaches its most quiet part it's not as quiet as the first song so the distance between the loudest and the quietest parts is much shorter it has a smaller dynamic range it's less dynamic it's more compressed and its rms is higher than the first tracks rms was this is closer to what a professionally mastered track probably looks like so the first track will look a bit more like your work in progress and the second track will look more like a professionally released track that's probably a bit more compressed than yours so imagine you want to compare your track to a reference track in your diw you put your tracks in there you set them to the same volume and then you a b test you switch from your track to the reference track and every time that that happens you end up coming away frustrated because the reference track always sounds punchier more warm more bright more crisp more smooth more round any of these words right but actually what's happening is that its rms is higher than your rms and because its rms is higher we automatically think it's better now you understand the bias of your own brain we can fix this to make your track and the reference track equally loud subjectively speaking we just have to match their rms to the same level so the safest and simplest way to match your rms to the rms of the reference track is to take the reference track and turn it down until its rms is pretty much pulsating at the same level as your track that way when you go over and back from your track to the reference track you're not going to be fooled by its loudness you're going to have the same loudness and then you can make decisions based on the balance of the elements does your song have the right elements in the right proportions compared to the reference track things like this decisions like this are now within your control and you're not just there chasing subjective loudness in a later video we'll discuss different strategies of compressing your own dynamic range to get it to be in the ballpark of what your reference tracks could be so that you can sit inside the dynamic range appropriate for your genre but that's a completely different subject and that's not what i want to address today if you understand the difference between peak and rms now conceptually you've also seen this in ableton live in session view if you go look at the meters there's two different types of volumes being represented there there is the transparent green which is peak volume and then there is the darker green which sits there below and that's the rms so if you want to compare your tracks to a reference track just bring down the volume of the reference track until you see the full green bars jumping next to each other from that point onwards you know that all your mixed decisions are about balance not about loudness understanding this concept as early as possible in your music production career is going to save you so much time and frustration you're going to learn so much faster so just get this tool in your belt check out some of our other videos sign up for one of our classes be good to one another and stay producing take care bye you

Channel: Underdog Electronic Music School

Views: 8,497

Rating: 4.9905992 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 8f0GU69fVNE

Length: 6min 8sec (368 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/manamoves]

Great video! Very helpful. Thank you

[u/Shaftdmc]

Best explanation I’ve ever heard! Hands down.

[u/RockhardJohnson]

Quality video Mr. Oscar; clear, well explained and easy to understand.

[u/AutoModerator]

This is your friendly reminder to read the submission rules, they're found in the sidebar. If you find your post breaking any of the rules, you should delete your post before the mods get to it.

You should check out the regular threads (also found in the sidebar) to see if your post might be a better fit in any of those.

Daily Feedback thread for getting feedback on your track. The only place you can post your own music.

Marketplace Thread if you want to sell or trade anything for money, likes or follows.

Collaboration Thread to find people to collab with.

"There are no stupid questions" Thread for beginner tips etc.

Seriously tho, read the rules and abide by them or the mods will spank you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.