Loudness / clipping · audio
How loud is this recording, and is it clipping?
This decodes the audio and measures it: integrated loudness in LUFS the way broadcasters and streaming services do, the sample and inter-sample peak, the overall level, and whether the signal was driven into clipping. Loud, flat-topped audio is a sign it has been re-encoded or over-processed.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your file is never uploaded or stored.
Decoding and measuring…
What LUFS loudness is
A peak meter tells you the highest sample, but not how loud something sounds. LUFS
(loudness units relative to full scale) is a perceptual measure: the audio is run through a filter
that mimics the ear, averaged over the whole file, and gated so quiet gaps do not drag the number
down. It is the standard behind EBU R128 and the loudness normalisation on every
streaming platform. Broadcast targets around -23 LUFS; music streaming sits nearer
-14 LUFS.
Peak, true peak and clipping
Sample peak is the loudest single sample. True peak estimates the real waveform peak between samples, which can sit higher and is what actually overloads a converter or a lossy encoder. When a signal is pushed past full scale it clips: the tops of the waveform are sheared flat. A handful of samples at full scale can be normal; long runs of them are flat-topping, and that is the tell that a recording was driven too hard or re-encoded from something already clipped.
What it does and does not show
This measures levels; it does not judge quality or prove tampering. Loudness and clipping are context: a heavily clipped, brick-wall-loud file is unlikely to be a clean camera original, and a sudden level or loudness change across a recording can mark a join. Read it alongside the waveform & stereo view and the silence finder.