If your master sounds clean inside your DAW but develops distortion after uploading it to a streaming service, the problem may not be your sample peak alone.
Digital audio can produce inter-sample peaks
A sample peak meter measures stored digital samples. The reconstructed waveform can sometimes exceed those sample values.
This is why True Peak measurement is important when evaluating a final master.
Lossy encoding can expose problems
Streaming services may encode audio into compressed formats. The encoding and decoding process can alter the waveform and make an already aggressive peak structure more vulnerable to audible distortion.
Why 0 dBFS is not a comfortable target
Digital full scale is a hard ceiling for stored samples, but targeting that ceiling leaves very little room for subsequent processing.
Leaving appropriate True Peak headroom can reduce the risk of problems during distribution.
What should you check?
- True Peak
- Sample clipping
- Integrated loudness
- PLR
- Limiter behavior
Don't judge the master only inside your DAW
Always consider what happens after your master leaves the production environment.
A release-ready master needs to survive the entire playback chain, not just look good on one meter.
LoudCheck checks True Peak and clipping and provides playback-risk information before distribution.