A loudness meter judged against your target
Nebula Loudness measures momentary, short-term and integrated loudness, true peak and loudness range to ITU-R BS.1770-4 and EBU R128, and judges the master against one of 16 targets. It meters a track live in your host, measures files and whole albums, and writes a PDF report.
Also in Nebula Complete and All Access.
Highlights
What sets it apart
Passes the EBU's own test set
Every case of EBU Tech 3341 (1 to 23) and Tech 3342 (1 to 6) passes to the specifications' tolerances: 34 checks, 0 failures.
Judged on the right measure
16 targets, from Streaming and Spotify to Broadcast (EBU R128) and Podcast. Psytrance Club is judged on its loudest moment, because breakdowns pull the whole-song figure down.
Files, albums and the encode
Drop one file or an album measured as one, preview the true peak after an AAC encode, match a reference, and export a PDF report or the history as CSV.
Features
Everything in Nebula Loudness
Measurement
- Momentary, short-term and integrated loudness (LUFS)
- True peak per side, with when it happened and the overs counted
- Loudness range (EBU Tech 3342), PLR and PSR
- The loudest moment and the loudest 3 seconds
Targets
- 16 targets, each with its own ceiling and tolerance
- A Custom target with its own level, ceiling and measure
- Gain to the target and headroom to the ceiling
Files and reports
- Measure files or an album as one, stereo, mono, 5.0 and 5.1
- AAC encode preview and a reference to match
- PDF report and CSV history
Workflow
- Follows the transport and is saved with the session
- Compact panel, 17 themes, every figure read by VoiceOver
- A command-line tool for WAV, AIFF, MP3 and AAC
Claude
Claude can help
With the nebula-loudness connector (Connect Claude in the panel's menu), Claude can read every figure and the verdict, read the loudness history, measure an audio file, and change the target or tolerance. It takes back only its own changes and resets the measurement only when asked. Inside Nebula DAW, Claude uses the DAW's own connector.
Measured
What the tests show
- EBU Tech 3341 cases 1 to 23 and Tech 3342 cases 1 to 6: 34 checks, 0 failures (measured 2026-10-10, docs/CONFORMANCE.md)
- True peak on a known inter-sample peak held to 0.01 dB
- Identical figures at 64 and 4097 frame blocks, bit for bit
- auval -strict and pluginval at strictness 10 on the AU and the VST3 (scripts/validate.sh)
- Realtime contract: no allocation, lock, file or log call in the core (scripts/check_realtime_contract.sh)
- Bit-exact pass-through: the audio is never changed, no latency and no tail
Questions
Nebula Loudness FAQ
Does it change my audio?
No. It is a tap: the audio passes through bit for bit, with no latency and no tail.
Which loudness standards does it follow?
ITU-R BS.1770-4 for loudness and true peak, EBU R128 with Tech 3341, and EBU Tech 3342 for loudness range. It passes all 34 checks of the EBU's own test set.
Can it measure a finished file or an album?
Yes. Drop one file, or several measured as one album. It also previews the true peak after an AAC encode and can export a PDF report and a CSV history.
Does it do dialogue gating for broadcast?
No. Dialogue gating relies on a proprietary speech classifier, so targets that ask for it are measured on the whole programme, and the meter says so.
What does it need?
macOS 11 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. It loads as AU or VST3 in Logic, Ableton Live, Bitwig, Cubase, FL Studio, Reaper and Nebula DAW, and runs on its own as a standalone app.
Try Nebula Loudness free for 30 days
Download, install, and every product runs fully for 30 days. No account and no card needed. Buy the ones you keep.