Integrated loudness
The single LUFS reading for a whole song, episode, or program after every loud and quiet section has been counted.
See it
What it is
Integrated loudness is one perceived-loudness figure for the complete program, reported in LUFS. ITU-R BS.1770 applies frequency weighting and a gate so long stretches of near-silence do not drag the result down like a plain sample average would. EBU R 128 wraps that measurement with a relative gate 10 LU below the ungated level, which is why a long silent stretch cannot drag your reading down. The measurement only means something after the meter has heard the whole export.
Use it when matching episodes, songs, or broadcast programs to a delivery target. Reset the meter, play or scan from the first frame to the last, then adjust overall gain and transparent limiting. Momentary and short-term loudness still help diagnose individual passages, but integrated is the number used to summarize the finished program.
Gotcha: the same integrated LUFS can hide very different rides. A quiet intro and loud ending may average to the same number as an even mix, and integrated loudness says nothing about the highest peak. Check loudness range and true peak alongside it, then measure the encoded delivery file rather than trusting the project meter.
Ask AI for it
Normalize this podcast with FFmpeg's loudnorm filter in two-pass mode using I=-16, LRA=11, and TP=-1. In pass one, capture measured_I, measured_LRA, measured_TP, measured_thresh, and offset; feed those values into pass two. Then scan the complete encoded output and report final integrated LUFS, loudness range, and true peak.