Background Music Levels

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Kenneth Melniczek

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:20:47 PM8/3/24

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Here are some suggested background music volume levels from international bodies:World Wide Web ConsortiumThe World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is an international community that develops open standards for the World Wide Web and advises on mixing audio sounds so that the non-speech sounds are 20dBs lower than any speech sounds.

Setting your background music 20dBs lower than speech sounds will make the speech audio four times louder than the background audio. Here is a great example from the World Wide Web Consortium of how they suggest it should be done. You can check out this page for more in-depth examples.

For traditional TV or terrestrial broadcast, here in the UK the BBC is our go-to for audio standards.The BBC is extremely strict about the audio levels of content supplied to them. In the event that a TV show receives a significant number of complaints regarding audio, the BBC will ask for the sound to be remixed at the expense of the content provider or production house. Regarding music levels in content, when the final mix is complete the BBC recommends taking the music down by 4dB.

Your overall audio levels should never exceed 0dB, as your audio will distort.As soon as your audio levels exceed 0dB, they will distort and, once exported from your video editing or audio editing software, this cannot be fixed.The only solution is to turn your audio down and re-export, ensuring that your master audio fader in your software NEVER exceeds 0dB.

Here are a few things you can do to help improve the audio quality and get good audio levels in your content consistently. 1. Listen To Your Final Mix On A Variety Of DevicesEnsure you listen to your final audio mix on a variety of devices, from desktop speakers to car speakers to your mobile phone to your laptop and any other speaker system you have to hand.This is a technique that professional audio mixing engineers have been using for years and it should be implemented by content creators who are eager to get a good sound in their content.

It is most important to listen to your audio mix on a device that your audience will normally use. For example, if you are a YouTuber, you may want to check how your audio sounds on a laptop, mobile phone, and TV, as the vast majority of the YouTube audience consumes media on one of these devices. This will help you hear what your audience will hear. 2. If In Doubt, Turn Your Background Music Volume DownWhen mixing speech and background music, there is always the temptation to turn up the background music. Try to resist this if possible. Very few people, if any, will complain if your background music is too low, but if it is too loud, they will just switch off.

If it is too loud and affects how we hear the main speech or dialogue in your content, very few listeners can tolerate this.3. Test Your AudioIf you are unsure about the audio levels in your content, produce a test YouTube video and make it private.There is nothing wrong with experimenting with audio levels, posting your video on YouTube privately, and listening to how it sounds.

Always use your ears to make the final decision on what sounds good.And finally, experiment with different audio levels until you find what works best for you and your content.Happy producing!
Coya MusicCoya Music is a website where you can find free music to use in your content. We also share information about how to make your content sound better and how to make music yourself.

What Is Celtic Music? (Explained)Celtic music is a genre of folk music that dates back centuries and has been enjoyed by people all over the world. Originating in Ireland and Scotland, it has many unique characteristics which set...Continue Readinglink to Game Development Music (What is the best audio file type?)Game Development Music (What is the best audio file type?)Whether you're a new indie developer or a seasoned pro, you know good audio is key to a great game. But what's the best format for your audio files? WAV, MP3, or OGG? As a general rule, if you...Continue ReadingAbout UsCoya Music is an online resource of free music for content creators, video makers, game developers and game streamers.

The website also has a lot of information for people who want to improve the sound quality in their content.

From improving the audio quality in your game streams to video making, you can learn how to make professional sounding music and media on this website.

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The problem with uploading videos to YouTube is that everyone is doing things differently. There is no agreed upon standard for audio levels. Everyone seems to be doing things in their own way and everyone believes that the way they are doing it is correct.

I am not an audio expert and certainly do not claim to be one, however in this article I would like to share with you what I have learned. I have made a point of explaining any technical jargon so that fellow videography novices can still understand everything clearly.

One problem that has affected YouTube throughout the years is volume. It is common for YouTube users to watch one video that is playing audio loud and then play another video and the audio is very quiet.

Part of the problem is that a high percentage of YouTube users simply record a video and then upload it. Then do not modify the audio in any way before uploading. The unfortunate side-effect of this is that people who did spend time modifying audio appeared to have uploaded a video that was too quiet.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that non-music videos are being normalised. Hopefully, this situation will change in the future. Until then, YouTubers such as myself will need to pay attention to the volume of audio in their videos.

One key term I learned was dBFS. This abbreviation stands for Decibels Relative to Full Scale and is used to monitor digital levels. 0 dBFS is used to define the maximum digital signal level.

Different video and audio services have different rules on what dBFS level should be adhered. For example, it is common for television channels to use -18 dBFS for their content (i.e. 18 decibels below the maximum level). Different levels are used for other platforms such as cinemas, DVDs, radio, video games etc.

The Maximum Peak Level refers to the absolute highest level of a signal. In Europe, most television networks set this maximum peak level at -9 dBFS. This means that the maximum decibel level is nine below what a system can produce. Pay attention to the word maximum, as most sound will be lower than that to ensure there is good Dynamic Range (which is the ratio between the loudest and quietest sounds).

In the last section, I spoke about audio normalisation. This is used to change audio to a particular level. For example, in order to adhere to audio guidelines by television networks, a company would have to normalise peaks so that the peak level does not exceed the maximum peak level e.g. -9 dBFS.

What YouTube are doing is normalising all music videos so that the volume level is the same across the board. For quiet videos, normalising the audio will increase the audio gain so that it is louder. For louder videos, normalising the audio will decrease the audio gain so that it is quieter.

The end result of this is that all music videos will play at the same volume and the loudness war will die on YouTube. Something that television viewers have been accustomed to for several decades because content creators have to adhere to the audio rules of television networks.

I recently started adjusting the audio in my videos to -9 dBFS. I made the decision to do this after reading dozens of threads where YouTubers talked about how they define the max peak of their audio levels to between -6 dBFS and -12 dBFS because that is most television networks use. These people adjusted their audio to these levels because of this.

Ten days ago I created a thread on YTTalk; a great YouTube forum that I recommend joining if you are interested publishing on YouTube. The discussion was about background music levels, however many members also noted the level they use for vocals too.

Some set their max audio level to -6 dBFS, some to -9 dBFS, and another at -12 dBFS. They all seem to follow the guidelines of setting audio between -6 dBFS and -12 dBFS. YouTuber Andrew Flint also mentioned that he was advised at University to always keep voice peaks at between -6 dBFS and -12 dBFS.

You see, during my investigation about background music audio levels (which I will discuss later in this article), I read more and more about YouTube audio levels and it soon became crystal clear to me that there was more to this story.

Many YouTubers, including myself, had been setting the max peaks of their audio between -6 dBFS and -12 dBFS because that is what television networks recommended. However, YouTube is a different platform to television.

Jan recommends normalising all audio to 0 db. Many others advise against this and state that when a video is uploaded to YouTube the encoding process can make audio distort if it is too close to 0 db. To stop distortion from occurring, it is better to normalise at a lower level so that there is some headroom to avoid distortion or clipping occurring. Some recommend -0.1 dBFS, some recommend -1 dBFS, and some recommend -3 dBFS. And there are others who still prefer to normalise at lower levels such as -6 dBFS or -9 dBFS.

Jan makes a point of saying that normalising audio to 0 db will not cause distortion because it is only the maximum peak that reaches 0 db. However, if you look at the video he recommended watching (below), you can see that he actually normalised audio to -0.1, not 0.