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Hopefully there are some people that know the EBU R128 loudness measurement. (Germany)

I have a TV advertisement, that sounds exactly the way I want. It consist a Backing track, one FX and a Claim Voice-over.

Every track is EQ-ed and Compressed but just so slightly that I keep some dynamics.

The Song starts of with lower volume than ends with a crescendo. The VOice-over kicks in at the peak of the song, so i reduced the Volume of the song by 8 dB via a fitting Volume envelope. The FX (Camera Flashlight sound) appears just before the voiceover.

On my master channel I have High and lowpass, a Kramer Tape for slight saturation and Compressing and one iZotope Ozone Maximiser. This Brick wall Limiter creates no gain reduction. (Just for safety reasons)

Now my problem: I need to deliver a EBU R128 Mix down with -23 Integrated LUFS and max -20 Short Term LUFS

Right now I have -23 Integrated LUFS and -19 Short Term LUFS.

MY Problem is, that the Voice Over appears to loud for the measurement. but if i lower its volume, it starts to fight with the music. When I change the Volume envelope of the music track, the fade from loud to silent is to strong.

It feels like whatever i change on the left, causes only more difference between Integrated and Short term LUFS :/

What do i need to do. TO fulfil the Restrictions.

Thank you very much!

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Welcome to broadcast mixing. ;)

I would suggest using an EQ to carve out some space in the music track to fit it around the dialog. That way, you can pull the dialog track down a little without having to touch the music's levels, and it should fight less. You can do that and set it to just hold over the whole music track, or you can automate the ducks in the EQ to work only in the places you need it.

A really fast way to do that is to duplicate the music track, and get your EQ set up on the new one. Leave the unprocessed music open where you don't have dialog, then crossfade to the processed track whenever there's dialog. It's faster than automating gain controls on multiple bands, and the effect is pretty much the same.

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  • Thx for the welcome :) Until now I just had R68 and R128 with Integrated measurement only so its is a whole new world now with all these numbers :) I had an Idea when you told me that eq Autoamtion. Im gonna build Sidechained C6 Multiband Preset into my TV advertisement template. To duck out the Mids. thx
    – Tobias Schmidt
    Oct 11 '13 at 13:58
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    I'm not an expert on these matters.If you reduce dynamics the result is more perceived loudness. Maybe you could also use less compression on everything, wouldn't this reduce the loudness and LUFS level.Or am I misinterpreting this?
    – Arnoud Traa
    Oct 11 '13 at 15:15
  • You're correct Arnoud. That's why the Loudness metering is so important. Normally, Tobias would be OK. It's pretty rare for someone to have both an integrated AND a short term loudness requirement.
    – Shaun Farley
    Oct 11 '13 at 15:59
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    Some TV Channels in Germany have Integrated and Short Term restrictions for TV ads. It seems like they do not like the extreme dynamics that TV ads had when R128 was introduced.
    – Tobias Schmidt
    Oct 14 '13 at 19:49
  • Good info to have, Tobias. Thanks for sharing!
    – Shaun Farley
    Oct 14 '13 at 20:46
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try to de-essing voice over or reduce its energy on the high frequencies. LU measurement is close to our earing perception, too mucch energy on 3,5/5khz make the measurement jumping.

Giorgio Riolo

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  • Great Info, But i always make sure my De-Esser is running as hard as possible on claims, so i can mix em loud. But I will try to paly with the eq on music tracks and such, maybe that is a good way of gaining some loudness-headroom.
    – Tobias Schmidt
    Oct 14 '13 at 19:51
  • I started to use brainwork's dynamic eq quite a bit with voice overs now to keep the 300 hz and 4000 hz areas in check. I do the same on the music channel but i use the voice over as the side chain. this makes everything clear at lower vo levels.
    – Tobias Schmidt
    Aug 29 '14 at 10:07
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Shaun hits the nail on the head as does Arnoud.

We've switched to LUFS here and noticed that it all comes down to less compression across all tracks and on your master channel and creating troughs in the EQ of the music for your VO to sit in.

It's difficult to comprehend at first, but after you've done it a while it makes sense. I found my mixes have more clarity in them as well. Quite important when working on shortform.

Also note that although they ask for -23, the official regulations allow for a little leeway of around -/+ 2.

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  • In Germany most TV channels require exact -23 LUFS and for live shows ±1 (I am so glad I am no live SoundEng at the moment XD)
    – Tobias Schmidt
    Oct 14 '13 at 19:54
  • Waow, that's crazy! Must be doable though! Just a lot of practice and knowing the talent.
    – Edwin Matthews
    Nov 1 '13 at 13:28

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