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RX 11 Manual

Streaming Preview

Overview

The Streaming Preview module applies the same loudness normalization and lossy encoding that streaming platforms will apply. This means you can use Streaming Preview to hear how your song will sound on those platforms and compare it with reference songs. We hope this process helps you uncover improvements for your mixes and masters and gives you more confidence to release your music.

Controls

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  • PLAYBACK LOUDNESS: Represents the loudness normalization target for the streaming platform in Loudness Units Full Scale (LUFS). When Streaming Preview is applied, gain will be applied to your audio to match this loudness. The loudness measurement and normalization occurs after lossy encoding has been applied.

  • APPLY POSITIVE GAIN: When this option is enabled and your audio is quieter than the Playback Loudness you're targeting, positive gain will be applied to bring your audio up to the target. However, streaming platforms like Spotify will not boost your audio to be greater than -1 dB True Peak, so the same is true in the Streaming Preview module. For example, if an audio file's loudness is -20 LUFS, and its True Peak maximum is -5 dB FS, Streaming Preview will only lift the track up to -16 LUFS.

  • CODEC: Selects the lossy encoding format that streaming platforms apply to reduce the amount of data required to stream and store audio.

    • LOSSLESS (NONE): Does not apply any lossy compression to simulate streaming platforms offering HiFi lossless audio like Tidal and Apple Music.

    • OGG: A free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. It is primarily used by Spotify.

    • MP3: (MPEG Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany.

    • AAC: (Advanced Audio Coding) is designed to be the successor of the MP3 format and generally achieves higher sound quality than MP3 at the same bit rate. It is used when streaming lossy audio through Apple Music and Tidal.

    • OPUS: Opus is a lossy audio coding format developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force. It’s designed to efficiently code speech and general audio in a single format, while remaining low-latency enough for real-time interactive communication and low-complexity enough for low-end embedded processors. It is the primary codec used by YouTube.

  • QUALITY: Selects the bitrate for the lossy encoding. This represents the amount of information, or detail, that is stored per unit of time of a recording. Lower bit rates will result in more audio loss and a reduction in sonic quality. When the Lossless codec option is selected, the Quality control is not accessible.

Workflow and Presets

The recommended workflow with the Streaming Preview module is to use the provided presets. We have researched the major streaming platforms and created these presets to represent their Playback loudness levels and codecs. Some streaming platforms enable you to make changes that will affect these settings and these options are also represented in the presets. Streaming platform companies may change their settings and we will do our best to keep the presets up-to-date if the settings change.

Streaming Preview is designed only for auditioning codec processing/loudness normalization. We do not recommend exporting or uploading your audio to a streaming service after applying Streaming Preview processing. This would effectively bake in any lossy encoding you hear in the Preview.