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Plain-English reference on loudness and true peak — what the numbers on your meter actually mean, and how to master to them.

• Loudness and true peak: a practical guide for mixing and mastering

  How loudness (LUFS) and true peak (dBTP) decide whether your master translates on streaming — the whole picture, with deep-dives on each part.

• What is LUFS? Loudness units explained

  LUFS explained: what the loudness unit on your meter measures, how it differs from peak and RMS, and why streaming normalizes by integrated LUFS.

• LUFS targets for Spotify, Apple Music & YouTube

  The integrated LUFS reference levels for Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube — why mastering louder than the target just gets turned down, and what to aim for.

• True peak vs sample peak: why your −0.1 dB master still clips

  Sample peak vs true peak: how inter-sample peaks push a −0.1 dBFS master over 0 dB in converters and MP3/AAC encoding — and how to catch them.

• How to set a true-peak ceiling (and why −1 dBTP)

  A practical guide to setting a true-peak ceiling: why −1 dBTP is the common default, when to use −2 dBTP, and how to avoid the usual limiter mistakes.

• Headroom before mastering: how much does your mix need?

  How to leave useful headroom for mastering without chasing a magic peak number — what to remove, what to keep, and how to export a clean premaster.

• Limiter release and lookahead: what the controls actually change

  What limiter release and lookahead do to transients, pumping and distortion — and a practical way to set them without copying a universal preset.

• Mono compatibility and phase: the pre-release check

  How to check a stereo master in mono, find phase cancellation, and fix width problems without collapsing the mix or trusting one correlation meter.

• Dither: when it matters, when it doesn't, and where it goes

  A practical guide to audio dither: why it belongs at a final word-length reduction, when not to add it, and how to avoid repeated or premature dithering.

• How streaming loudness normalization treats your master

  Playback normalization versus mastering: what streaming services measure, when they turn tracks down or up, and why your uploaded master is not rewritten.