5 min read
Best audio settings for YouTube: loudness, codec and sample rate
YouTube will turn your mix down. Fighting that with a louder master only costs you dynamics and adds distortion.
Every upload goes through the same pipeline: YouTube measures the loudness of your file, normalises playback towards its target, and re-encodes the audio. Your export settings decide how much quality survives.
Loudness: aim around minus 14 LUFS integrated
YouTube normalises loud uploads downwards. If you deliver at minus 8 LUFS, playback is attenuated and you gain nothing except a squashed mix. Deliver around minus 14 LUFS integrated with true peaks at minus 1 dBTP and your mix plays back at its intended balance.
Sample rate: 48 kHz
Video is a 48 kHz world. Upload 48 kHz and no conversion happens on your side. A 44.1 kHz music master inside a video project should be converted once, properly, rather than left to whatever the export does silently.
Codec and bitrate: give it the best source
YouTube re-encodes everything to AAC or Opus regardless of what you send. That is exactly why you should upload the highest quality audio your encoder allows: PCM in a MOV or MP4 when possible, or AAC at 320 kbit/s. Uploading a 128 kbit/s MP3 means two lossy generations stacked.
Channels
- Stereo for almost everything. Check mono compatibility before export.
- True mono content should be exported as dual mono stereo, not a single channel file.
- Avoid uploading 5.1 unless you know the audience path supports it.
A quick pre-upload checklist
- Integrated loudness near minus 14 LUFS, true peak at or below minus 1 dBTP.
- 48 kHz, no last minute sample rate conversion.
- Dialogue intelligible on a phone speaker, checked in mono.
- No clipping in the exported file, verified rather than assumed.
You can verify sample rate, bit depth, channel layout and peak level of the finished export in the audio inspector before you upload.