The Deep Standard

1. What a label records

Every label uses these seven, with these names. Nothing is optional except where stated.

How loud it sitsloudness, in LUFS

One number for the whole track. It is not the same as how loud your speakers are, which is your choice. It is how much sound the recording carries.

How much it movesloudness range, in dB

A small number means the track stays roughly level. A large number means it travels a long way between its quietest and loudest parts, and you will feel that travel.

The loudest it ever getstrue peak, in dB

The single highest point in the file. The thing that catches you out if you turned the volume up during a quiet bit.

Where the level goesenergy path

One of four: steady, builds, settles, waves. Written before you play it, so you know whether to expect an arrival.

Whether anything jumpssudden shifts, with times

A yes or no, and if yes, when. Given as times, so you can look away or turn down before the moment arrives rather than after.

Tempo, and where it changesBPM and a tempo map

The speed, plus a map of where it changes, e.g. 0:00 128, 2:54 140, 3:40 none. None means a stretch with no steady pulse, which is its own kind of information.

Its colourwarm, balanced or bright

Which way the sound leans. Warm sits low and soft, bright sits high and forward, and for a lot of people the difference decides whether a track is listenable at all.

2. How a label is made

• The whole file, not a sample. A thirty second listen cannot tell you about a shift in the fourth minute. Sampling was tried, and it failed, which is why the standard says whole file.
• Two sources, named. A label made from the file outranks one made by ear. A label made by ear says what it was read from: “a 1:30 listen”, not “the whole track”. Provisional is allowed; pretending is not.
• Rounded, and said so. Loudness is given to the nearest whole number. Nobody needs three decimal places, and false precision invites arguments that miss the point.
• What would prove it wrong. If a listener says something jumped and the label did not flag it, the label is wrong. It gets corrected, dated, and the correction stays visible. A standard nobody can catch out is not a standard, it is a claim.

3. The reference set

Three openly licensed tracks, chosen because they are different from each other rather than because we like them. None of them is for sale; they exist so the label can be checked against the sound. If the label and your ears disagree, the label loses.

4. Who has adopted it

Nobody yet. This list is empty and it will stay empty until someone else uses the labels, which is the only thing that makes a standard a standard rather than a preference.

5. How to adopt it

Free. No membership, no permission, no negotiation. Three steps:

1. 1.Copy the label block and fill it in for your own track. If you cannot measure it, say which parts you heard rather than measured.
2. 2.Put the credit line on the release, exactly as it is written, if the licence asks for one.
3. 3.Tell us you have done it. We add you to the list below, with the date. That is the whole cost of adopting.