Measure audio using the Loudness Radar effect

Learn how to use the Loudness Radar effect to measure the audio of your sequence.

If you are producing content for broadcast television, you may have to provide media files according to strict delivery requirements. A common delivery requirement is related to the maximum volume that a sequence can have.

You can measure the audio level of your clips, tracks, or sequences using the Loudness Radar effect.

Apply the Loudness Radar effect to a track

Open the Audio Track Mixer (Window > Audio Track Mixer).

The Audio Track Mixer is open automatically if you are using the default Audio workspace.
At the top of the Master control, click the tiny triangle to open the Effect Selection menu and choose Special > Loudness Radar.

The Loudness Radar effect in the Audio Track Mixer

Premiere Pro applies the Loudness Radar effect to the track.

Edit Loudness Radar settings

To change the measurement levels manually in the Loudness Radar, click Settings.

If you are not comfortable editing the levels manually, you can use a preset that is based on widely used standards.

In the Settings tab, set the following Loudness options:

Option	What it does
Target Loudness	Defines the target loudness value
Radar Speed	Controls the time of each radar sweep
Radar Resolution	Sets the difference in loudness between each concentric circle in the radar view
Momentary Range	Sets the range for the momentary range. EBU +9, indicates the narrow loudness range, used for normal broadcast. EBU +18 is the wide loudness range used for drama and music
Low Level Below	Sets the shift between the green and blue colors on the momentary loudness ring. This indicates that the level may be below the noise floor level.
Loudness Unit	Sets the Loudness unit to display on the radar. LKFS: Loudness unit specified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) LUFS: Loudness unit specified by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) LU: A unit for loudness relative to target according to EBU and ITU.
Loudness Standard	Species the Loudness standard. BS.1770-3: This ITU standard concerns Broadcast loudness and True-peak Level measurement. This standard uses Leq(K) to measure loudness. Leq(K): The loudness is based on a Leq measurement employing K-weighting, which is a specific frequency weighting developed by the Communications Research Center (a federal research institute in Ottawa, Canada).
Peak Indicator	Sets the maximum True-Peak level. If this value is exceeded, the peak indicator is activated.

The channel map at the bottom of the Loudness Radar indicates the In and Out channels, and also how the effect is instantiated.

Measure the loudness of your track

Right-click (Win) or Ctrl + Click (macOS) the Loudness Radar effect and choose Edit to open the Loudness Radar dialog box.

Editing the Loudness Radar
Press the spacebar to play, or click Play on the Program Monitor. During playback, the Loudness Radar monitors the loudness of all the channels that are playing and displays it as a range of values illustrated in blue, green, and yellow.

Loudness Radar display
- The color shape indicates the instant-by-instant average level of your project as it is playing.
- The second ring indicates the Target Loudness setting (based on the settings in the Loudness Radar).
- The other rings help you measure the on-going loudness of your project.
- The lower right corner indicates the average level of your entire project, measured in LKFS or LUFS (based on the settings in the Loudness Radar).
The Loudness Radar effect does not change the audio level. It gives you a precise measure of Loudness that you can use to change your audio loudness levels.

Additional resources

Loudness tips and tricks from tc electronic
How to measure loudness in Premiere Pro from the Premiere Pro User blog

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