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Music vocabulary · Recording and Production

Loudness

Meaning in music, with examples

nounCommon term

In music, loudness means: The perceived strength of sound by a listener, often discussed in mixing and mastering, not just measured signal level.

In Turkish: gürlük

How it is used

Engineers compare loudness across tracks, ads, podcasts, and albums. Compression, limiting, and arrangement all affect perceived loudness.

Example sentences

  1. The mix had plenty of headroom, but its loudness still felt low next to the reference track because the snare lacked impact.

    Here loudness means perceived volume in comparison with another song, not merely the peak meter reading on the session.

  2. During mastering, we measured integrated loudness across the full recording and compared it with the delivery specification.

    Integrated loudness summarizes the measured program over time; it does not describe the level of every individual moment.

Common collocations

  • perceived loudness
  • integrated loudness
  • loudness target
  • mixTo balance and combine all the recorded tracks of a song into a final stereo version, adjusting volume, panning, EQ, effects and dynamics.
  • masteringThe final stage of audio production, in which finished mixes are polished, made consistent in loudness and tone, and prepared for streaming, CD or vinyl.

More terms: Recording and Production

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