Goodhertz released Loudness, a free loudness meter VST plugin for Windows and macOS.
This November has been a banner month for freebies, and we aren’t even halfway done with it yet. Black Friday still awaits!
While you might be among the few waiting on the latest freebie from Waves, don’t let this one pass you by!
This comes from the endlessly inventing folks at Goodhertz, famous for the fantastic Wulf compressor. The new plugin is called Loudness and does what it says on the tin!
But what is Goodhertz Loudness? Just a simple gain utility?
No, not in the least.
Instead, Loudness is a master suite of loudness metering tools that just happens to have a fader attached to it. Now, you’ll want to have a peak limiter handy when using this on buses, as you can quite readily slip into peaking with some ease.
However, once you get past all that, it appears to be a flexible and invaluable tool that looks at everything to do with loudness.
Your leftmost side of the interface is your target loudness, which can be displayed in LUFS, RMS, Peak, and True Peak values. You can use this quite literally on every single track of a mix. You’ve got a beautiful waveform in the center of the interface, along with loudness metering going along the side of it.
Below the waveform, you’ll find your momentary, short-term, and long-term values. Like the target loudness, these can display LUFS, RMS, Peak, and True Peak values.
This all comes together with the trim meter on the right side of the interface, allowing you to apply or reduce the gain as necessary. You can listen in on the delta to hear loudness changes as well.
Not only do you get all this functionality, but this can be applied to the stereo field to strike a fine balance in your material. I’ve had it installed and working on a punk rock mix all afternoon, and I’ve been wondering where this has been all my life!
I typically leaned on TrackMeter and TrackControl for these features previously. Having them all present in one handy tool is an absolute joy.
Loudness is available for Windows and Mac computers. It is part of the Goodhertz free series, meaning there’s no rush to snag it. You’ll want to grab it soon, though, at least if you like seeing what your audio is doing.
The plugin runs like an absolute champion on Apple Silicon as well. I tested it in sessions on Studio One, Reaper, and Logic Pro X and it did just fine in all three.
Download: Loudness (FREE)
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9 Comments
Brenny C
onNice! Goodhertz makes some great plugins.
yambu
onI’m very disappointed, this half-baked plugin causes my DAW to freeze. Are we “producers” now guinea pigs for defective products? Immediately uninstalled it and deleted my goodhertz account at the same time. Sorry, in my case it was just a waste of time.
John B.
onIt might be worth noting that the product is in public Beta testing right now (a fact which is clearly noted on the download link) As such, potential issues are likely to surface. I suggest waiting a few weeks and checking in again to see if the plugin is in Release 1.0+ at that point.
Right now it’s just RC1 (Release Candidate 1) and they even say in the link:
“…don’t hesitate to reach out if you find an issue with Loudness RC1.” You might want to consider letting them know what OS and DAW you were attempting to run when it froze. Just a thought.
Lucas
onAs mentioned by John B., it’s in beta—and I’m not sure if there’s a better this-may-not-work-properly disclaimer than that. If that makes you feel like a guinea pig, maybe keep a sharper eye out for betas.
Also, zero stalling or freezing over here on two OS’, in two DAWs and one host on each.
Ian
onDeleted your account too? it’s still in beta, it’s not that deep
Daniel C.
onYambu, just as we need developers, developers need us. Yes, we’re supposed to be guinea pigs, in one way or the other, not just in software but in all sorts of products in society, that’s how it works. It’s unfair that these talented people have to get arround a certain number of different DAWs and a certain number of different OS and all the combinations between these two factors, and within each combination they need to test a certain number of features and for each bug that they correct these talented people will now have to test all the features again for all combinations of DAW+OS, etc… and I’m simplifying the endeavours. Some will release their software for free, the **very** least you can do is not delete everything at the first sight of a bug. Showing some respect is not that hard.
Lucas
onGood catch on this one.
I’ve tested it in Studio One, Reaper, and Gig Performer, VST2/VST3, and on Win7 & Win10 and seems to work fine. Even though the GUI resizes in steps, and the graph and spectrum are fairly simplistic renderings, I expected at least some small snags, hangs, or glitches, which happens even with some Full Version plugins by solid companies, but it stepped through the sizes fluidly, even with running audio through it, which surprised me. All of the sliders and buttons do what they’re supposed to, and most importantly, the metering itself is consistent with Youlean, so I’m confident that it’s reading correctly. If you don’t mind a one-time online authorization (for whatever reason, offline authorization is only available for purchased plugins, not demos,) it’s a nice one-stop plugin overall, for those who aren’t married to a metering setup already. And, to assuage the fears of people like me who mix in dimly lit rooms, yes, it has a Dark Mode.
Kidsonic
onI never thought I’d see the words “Goodhertz” and “Free” in the same sentence 🤣 I’m all for it though!!!!
Lucas
onGoodhertz has had Midside Matrix available for free for ages, as so long as you have an account. It’s a solid, if simple, utility that’s fully capable. I predominantly use Boz Digital Labs Mongoose (which isn’t free,) for mid/side work, and if I simply need to re-route L/R to M/S, I use Voxengo’s MSED (which *is free,) but Midside Matrix is a fine plugin if you just need simple re-routing without the tweakability of MSED. :)