Free Podcast Loudness & Noise Checker
Drop in a recording, or test your mic, to measure its loudness (LUFS), peak level, and noise floor against podcast and streaming targets. Everything runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
Stay quiet and record ~5 seconds of your room's background to measure its noise floor.
LUFS is an ITU-R BS.1770 style estimate (K-weighting + gated integration). Analysis is fully local, no audio leaves your browser.
What these numbers mean
Integrated LUFS is perceived loudness across the whole file, the number streaming platforms normalize to. Peak dBFS is the loudest single moment; keep it below -1 to avoid clipping and distortion after encoding. Noise floor is how loud the "silence" is, high noise means hiss, hum, or room tone you can hear between words.
Loudness targets to aim for
| Where it plays | Integrated loudness | True peak |
|---|---|---|
| Podcasts (Apple, Spotify spoken) | -16 LUFS stereo (-19 mono) | ≤ -1 dBTP |
| Music streaming (Spotify, YouTube) | -14 LUFS | ≤ -1 dBTP |
| Broadcast (EBU R128) | -23 LUFS | ≤ -1 dBTP |
How to fix an off-target recording
If your file is too quiet, too loud, or noisy, you do not need a DAW degree. Aulio Studio removes background noise, reduces room echo, and hits a loudness target automatically, all on-device on your Mac. See how to remove background noise on Mac and export formats after cleaning.
Frequently asked questions
What LUFS should a podcast be?
Most podcast platforms target about -16 LUFS integrated (stereo), or -19 LUFS mono, with true peaks at or below -1 dBTP. Spotify music normalizes to roughly -14 LUFS; EBU R128 broadcast uses -23 LUFS.
Is my audio uploaded?
No. All analysis runs in your browser via the Web Audio API. Your file and microphone input never leave your device. This is the same on-device principle Aulio Studio is built on. Read our on-device AI privacy article.
How accurate is the LUFS reading?
It applies an ITU-R BS.1770 style K-weighting filter with gated integration, a close estimate for checking a recording. A dedicated meter in your DAW may differ by a fraction of a LU.