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🎚️ How to Match Loudness Across Multiple Clips Automatically in Adobe Audition

When working with multiple recordings — like podcast episodes, interviews, or video segments — inconsistent volume can ruin the listening experience.
Adobe Audition solves this with automatic loudness matching, a tool that balances volume levels across clips in just a few clicks.
No more manual tweaking or guessing which track is too loud — Audition does the math for you.

1. What Is Loudness Matching?

Loudness matching ensures that all clips play at the same perceived volume level, even if they were recorded at different times or with different equipment.

It measures the LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) value of each clip — a professional standard used in broadcasting and streaming — and automatically adjusts them to your target level.

đź’ˇ Why It Matters:
If one speaker is louder than another or a background track suddenly spikes in volume, listeners may constantly reach for the volume knob. Loudness matching fixes this problem before it reaches your audience.

2. Where to Find the Loudness Matching Panel

  1. Open Adobe Audition.
  2. Go to Window → Match Loudness to reveal the panel.
  3. Drag and drop your audio clips into the panel.

You’ll see columns showing file name, current loudness, and true peak — all ready for analysis and correction.

3. Analyze Your Clips

Before you apply any adjustments, let Audition measure the current levels:

  • Select all clips in the panel.
  • Click Scan (the magnifying glass icon).
  • Audition will analyze each file and display its LUFS and peak values.

🎧 Tip: LUFS gives a more accurate representation of how loud a track sounds to the human ear, not just how high the peaks go.

4. Set a Loudness Target

After scanning, it’s time to choose your target:

  • -16 LUFS for podcasts and streaming audio
  • -14 LUFS for YouTube or social media
  • -23 LUFS for broadcast standards (like TV or radio)

To set it:

  1. Click the Match To dropdown.
  2. Choose ITU-R BS.1770-3 Loudness (the default standard).
  3. Enter your desired LUFS target manually.

5. Apply the Match

Once your target is set:

  • Select all the clips again.
  • Click Run (the lightning bolt icon).

Audition will automatically adjust gain values for each file to bring them to your chosen loudness — while maintaining sound quality and avoiding clipping.

💬 Pro Tip: This process is non-destructive — meaning your original files stay safe, and Audition creates processed versions you can export.

6. Export the Balanced Files

After matching loudness, export your audio for delivery:

  1. Click Export Settings at the bottom of the panel.
  2. Choose your format (WAV for quality, MP3 for online).
  3. Enable Normalize All Peaks to -1 dB for added headroom.
  4. Click Run to process and save.

You’ll now have perfectly balanced audio files ready for upload or mixing.

7. When to Use Loudness Matching

This tool is ideal for:

  • Podcast episodes recorded with different guests or mics
  • YouTube videos where dialogue and background music differ in volume
  • Video production soundtracks
  • Voiceover libraries or audiobooks

Audition’s automatic matching is a huge time-saver, especially for batch processing.

Conclusion

With Adobe Audition’s Match Loudness panel, you can achieve professional, broadcast-ready audio levels in seconds.
Whether you’re preparing podcasts, videos, or entire sound libraries, consistency is key — and this tool guarantees every listener hears your work exactly as intended.

Next up: “Using Spectral Frequency Display to Fix Audio Problems.”

Ben Kemp
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