Work out exactly how much gain you can apply before clipping, based on a file's current peak level and your target ceiling.
The Normalization & Headroom Calculator tells you how much gain a file needs to reach a loudness target and whether that gain will push the peaks past a ceiling — in which case a limiter (and some loss of dynamics) is unavoidable.
Use it before mastering for streaming or podcasts: with your measured LUFS and true peak, it shows if −14 or −16 LUFS is reachable without limiting.
Gain = target LUFS − current LUFS (because 1 LU equals 1 dB). Peak after gain = current peak + gain. If that exceeds the ceiling by more than 0.05 dB, the over-amount is how much peak reduction a limiter must provide; headroom is ceiling − current peak. Example: −20 LUFS with a −6.2 dBTP peak targeting −14 LUFS needs +6 dB, giving −0.2 dBTP — about 0.8 dB over a −1 dBTP ceiling.
Check if −14 LUFS is reachable.
Plan −16 LUFS.
Check −23/−24 LUFS compliance.
Decide how much to limit.
| Inputs | True peak, LUFS, target LUFS, ceiling |
|---|---|
| Outputs | Gain, peak after, headroom, verdict |
The distance between your peak and the ceiling.
The highest inter-sample peak allowed, usually −1 dBTP.
Use the Audio File Info & Quality Analyzer, which measures peak dBFS directly from the actual audio.
Leaving a small margin below full scale helps avoid 'inter-sample peaks' that can occur during lossy encoding or D/A conversion, which can exceed 0dB even when the digital samples themselves don't.
This tool runs entirely in your browser using the Web Audio API. Nothing is uploaded, stored or shared — there is no server to send your file to, so it works offline once the page has loaded.
Be the first to share your experience with this tool — your feedback helps others.