Besides my dayjob at guerrilla games I, together with Damian, host a podcast. Its called the game audio podcast. Awhile ago we had a terrific time talking to Bob Katz, Shaun Farley & Tom Hays about dynamic range & loudness. Since we have this sort of ubiquitous standard for broadcasting now from the EBU (R-128) I thought it would be great to see how podcasts are measuring up at the start of 2012. I’m picking 4 podcasts that I listen to frequently. Some of them are quite popular, some of them are niche.
Results below:
| podcast NPR show company show game show popular show (mono) |
range max -11 -8 -10 -16 |
range min -19 -17 -20 -24 |
program level -15 -10 -15 -20 |
true peak 2 1 1 0 |
based on 5 minutes of program because i am bored easily waiting for stats.
The dialog range (range min/max) Some interesting stats there. 75% are distorting on output. The overall program level varies dramatically for each. 10 LUFS between the loudest and the softest. The popular show comes quite close to the -23 LUFS goal. But on average i’m eyeballing we are 8 LUFS off.
There isnt a body for podcasting. The only major force would be itunes but even its role is merely as a middleman and a search body. Really, i dont htink a lot of people find podcasts thru iTunes. Word of mouth, social networks etc. yes. So lets just assume there isnt a real force that can push for any movement. I wonder, what could be done?
I think there are a few things: easy to use & free tools that will let both the pros & the amateurs check their outputs easily. And talking about it.
Any other suggestions? What tools should i recommend to (semi-) amateur podcasters for measuring their work’s loudness?