Youlean and True Level -16 LUFS, Loud Penalty -17.5 LUFS?

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

I have a piano tune and I'm comparing the Youlean Loudness Meter, Sonible True Level and Loudness Penalty. Youlean and True Level basically match at -16.4 LUFS but when I uploaded an mp3 and ran it in Loudness Penalty it's at -17.5. I'm trying to hit -14 for Youtube/Spotify levels and I think these targets usually matched before so I'm not sure why they'd be different now.

The other issue is hitting a ceiling of -16.4. I'm using Pianissimo and didn't really need to gain stage anything. When the -16.4 showed up on Youlean and True Level I raised the output 2.5db on the EQ but that didn't do anything. I have a Tone Boosters Barricade Limiter on the Master Bus with a pretty stock setting, I think, and I'm just trying to reduce peaks so I'm not understanding the wall at that level. I get that's the function of a limiter but I don't remember having this problem before. I'm trying to squeezee out 2db and have it match on the three different readouts but I'm getting shinola. Here's a couple of screen shots that hopefully might help. Thanks

LUFS.png (518.29 KiB) Viewed 2457 times

Limiter.png (590.22 KiB) Viewed 2457 times

[cactus-head]

Hi,

Are you running the loudness effects from the instrument track or from the master?

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

Are Youlean and True Level loudness effects? Those are on the Master. Other effects I'm dabbling with on the Master are an EQ and compressor and I had the Barricade Limiter and TB Ferox Tape Emulator on the Master for finishing off when everything else was dialed in. On a Send channel I have a compressor and an EQ and compressor on the MIDI track (Pianissimo).

[CactusMusicBC]

FYI any analyzer plug ins need to be the very last thing in the signal path.
The You Lean Meter is very accurate.
But the free version is limited to having to play the whole song. I use the paid version which allows you to drag and drop the audio file and in a few seconds you have the proper reading for the file.
Don’t forget that classical music has a lower LUFs than Rock. So even 20 is considered acceptable .

[ConnollyMusicCreates]

FYI any analyzer plug ins need to be the very last thing in the signal path.

Good to know. I'd never heard that actually so I'll check it out. Does it also mean they shouldn't be running after the other effects for real-time use, like they need to be on a different channel or something?

I like the Youlean and I have the paid version but I've just used it in the fx chain. I'll try dumping some files into it and see how that goes.

Any thoughts on why Youlean and True Level show the same LUFS readout while Loudness Penalty is off?

[CactusMusicBC]

Yes for sure you lean because its purpose is to analyze the output of the audio would need to be last in the chain. But don’t forget that if you turn down the fader of the master or the bus it is on then the reading will be false.
This is why I mostly rely on drag and drop of the exported song.
Sorry I don’t know what a loudness penalty means. Im guilty of only using the basic function of the plug in even though I know that it can do a lot more.
I keep it on my desktop and mostly just drag and drop my songs and videos to it.
It is also always on the master bus after the brick wall limiter and a spectrum analyzer like Span.
I’ll use it in real time as Im adjusting the sub buses to reach my target of around-14 LUFS. I also watch the gain reduction of the limiter. I only want to see very occasional action.