The science of loudness

2025-08-22T20:30:00Z

My watch has a “Noise” app: it shows $d</mi>B</mi></mrow></math>, for decibels.Your browser does not support the video tag.</video>My amp has a volume knob, which also shows decibels, although.. negative ones, this time.Your browser does not support the video tag.</video>And finally, my video editing software has a ton of meters — which are all in decibel or
decibel-adjacent units.[email protected]" poster="https://cdn.fasterthanli.me/content/articles/the-science-of-loudness/ [email protected] " class="" title="" alt="A screenshot of DaVinci Resolve, showing various meters: we have Bus 1,
Control Room with TP, Loudness, YouTube (LUFS), then Loudness History
with Integrated, Momentary and Short Term. In the Mixer, each track has
its meter.
">Your browser does not support the video tag.</video>How do all these decibels fit together? </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a>Summer fasterthanlime update 2025-08-15T07:30:00Z There are news! </picture>
Cool Bear's hot tip
</div> TL;DR: If you’re a patron or sponsor, check your Profile</a> page to
get detailed explainers of every perk. You’ll need to log in. Duh.

</div> Here are all the changes I’m implementing, summarized as a table: Before</td> After</td></thead> 📚 Articles remain exclusive for 6 months</td> Early access (couple weeks) for Silver tier</td></tr> 🎞️ No early access for video</td> Video early access on Patreon and website</td></tr></table></div> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> All color is best-effort 2025-06-27T07:30:00Z I do not come to you with answers today, but rather some observations and a lot of questions. The weird glitch</h2></a> Recently I was editing some video and I noticed this: [email protected] " title="A screenshot of the video, there are visible circles at various places in the image. Some of them are black, some of them are white. The image itself shows some blue and white text composited on some blurry background, which doesn’t really matter for this, and there’s a red line horizontal up in the image. It’s very confusing." alt="A screenshot of the video, there are visible circles at various places in the image. Some of them are black, some of them are white. The image itself shows some blue and white text composited on some blurry background, which doesn’t really matter for this, and there’s a red line horizontal up in the image. It’s very confusing."></picture> Not what the finger is pointing at — the dots. Here are the separate layers this image is made up of: the background is a stock image
I’ve licensed from Envato Elements: [email protected]" title="A picture of a canyon, darker than you’d expect." alt="A picture of a canyon, darker than you’d expect."></picture> Because I use it as a background image, I’ve cranked down the exposition in the Color tab: </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Introducing facet: Reflection for Rust 2025-06-05T19:00:01Z I have long been at war against Rust compile times. Part of the solution for me was to buy my way into Apple Silicon dreamland,
where builds are, like… faster. I remember every time I SSH into an x86_64
server, even the nice 64-core ones. And another part was, of course, to get dirty with Rust itself. I wrote Why is my Rust build so slow?</a>,
which goes in-depth into rust build performance, down to rustc self-profiling even! </a> </a> </a> </a> The virtue of unsynn 2025-05-29T17:20:01Z Addressing the rumors</h2></a> There have been rumors going around, in the Reddit thread for facet</a>, my take on reflection in Rust, which
happened a bit too early, but here we are, cat’s out of the bag, let’s talk
about it! Rumors that I, podcaster/youtuber fasterthanlime, want to kill serde</a>, serialization / deserialization
framework loved by many and which contributed greatly to Rust’s success, and I
just wanted to address those rumors and say that… </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Open sourcing the home CMS 2025-04-22T12:00:00Z I’ve been bragging about my website software for years! For… whew, it’s been 5 years! [email protected] " title="I didn't want to make a CMS! I did it out of spite! " alt="A screenshot of github commits for the beginning of my website. It has commit messages like 'learning rusqlite', 'walk stuff', 'import input files', 'parse frontmatter and stuff', and 'do stuff in parallel'. "></picture> I didn't want to make a CMS! I did it out of spite!
</div></figcaption>
</figure> I’ve been teasing folks about the cool things I did from the beginning — here are
all the articles and series I’ve written that mention it: 2020: A new website</a></li> 2021: Don’t shell out!</a></li> 2022: Updating fasterthanli.me</a></li> 2024: Face cams: the missing guide</a></li> 2024: State of the fasterthanlime</a></li>

</ul> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> The promise of Rust 2025-04-16T20:30:00Z The part that makes Rust scary is the part that makes it unique. And it’s also what I miss in other programming languages — let me explain! Rust syntax starts simple. This function prints a number:  fn</a-k> show</a-f> (</a-p> n</a-v> :</a-p> i64</a-t>)</a-p> {</a-p> println!</a-m> (</a-p> "n = {n}"</a-s>);</a-p>}</a-p>
</code></figure> And this program calls that function — it looks like any C-family language so far,
we got parentheses, we got curly brackets, we got, uhh… </div>

</div> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> That health is mental 2025-04-09T11:00:00Z Disclaimer: Trigger warning: depression, talk of suicide.

</div> It’s been a while since I wrote a mental health piece — but I think it’s
important to occasionally stop, take a breather, and think about how we feel. So. deep breath I’m okay, I think? Just a little restless. A bit of personal context</h2></a> For those keeping score, I went through major life events in 2023 — a divorce, a move,
and the news that I might need a second round of jaw surgery. </a> </a> </a> More devops than I bargained for 2025-04-07T19:10:00Z Background</h2></a> I recently had a bit of impromptu disaster recovery</a>,
and it gave me a hunger for more! More downtime! More kubernetes manifest!
More DNS! Ahhhh! The plan was really simple. I love dedicated Hetzner servers with all my heart but they are not very fungible. You have to wait entire minutes for a new dedicated server to be provisioned.
Sometimes you pay a setup fee, et cetera. And at some point to server static
websites and serve as a K3S server, it’s simply just too big, and approximately
twice the price that I should pay. </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Impromptu disaster recovery 2025-03-28T14:10:00Z Background</h2></a> im-promp-tu (im-ˈpräm(p)-(ˌ)tü</code>) made, done, or formed on or as if on the spur of the moment: improvised</a>

</li> composed or uttered without previous preparation: extemporaneous</a>

</li>
</ol> Merriam-Webster</a>

</blockquote> On March 18th, 2025, I thought I would look into self-hosted project management
solutions — something kanban-y, but.. better? [email protected] " title="This one does not spark joy. " alt="A screenshot of WeKan, the open-source Kanban. It looks.. from another age."></picture> This one does not spark joy.
</div></figcaption>
</figure> After discovering that Teamhood</a> was awesome (and
EU-based), but had a 3-seat minimum on their subscriptions, I resigned to
reluctantly self-host something. </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> The case for sans-io 2025-02-07T18:53:01Z The most popular option to decompress ZIP files from the Rust programming
language is a crate simply named zip</a> — At the time of this writing, it has 48
million downloads. It’s fully-featured, supporting various compression methods,
encryption, and even supports writing zip files. However, that’s not the crate everyone uses to read ZIP files. Some
applications benefit from using asynchronous I/O, especially if they decompress
archives that they download from the network. </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Catching up with async Rust 2024-12-25T07:30:00Z In December 2023, a minor miracle happened: async fn in traits</a> shipped. As of Rust 1.39, we already had free-standing async functions:  pub</a-k> async</a-k> fn</a-k> read_hosts</a-f> ()</a-p> -> eyre ::</a-p> Result</a-t> <</a-p> Vec</a-t> <</a-p> u8</a-t> >></a-p> {</a-p> // etc.</a-c>}</a-p>
</code></figure> …and async functions in impl blocks:  impl</a-k> HostReader</a-t> {</a-p> pub</a-k> async</a-k> fn</a-k> read_hosts</a-f> (</a-p> &</a-o> self</a-v>)</a-p> -> eyre ::</a-p> Result</a-t> <</a-p> Vec</a-t> <</a-p> u8</a-t> >></a-p> {</a-p> // etc.</a-c>}</a-p>}</a-p>
</code></figure> But we did not have async functions in traits: </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Highlighted code in slides 2024-11-23T17:40:00Z I have obsessed about this long enough, I think it’s only fair I (and you!) get some content out of it. When I started writing this article, I was working on my P99 CONF</a> slides.
Those slides happen to include some bits of code. And because I’m a perfectionist, I would like this
code to be syntax highlighted, like this:  let</a-k> addr :</a-p> SocketAddr</a-t> = config .</a-p> address</a-pr> .</a-p> parse</a-pr> ()</a-p>?;</a-p> let</a-k> ln = TcpListener</a-cr> ::</a-p> bind</a-f> (</a-p>addr?
config
</code></figure> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> ktls now under the rustls org 2024-09-26T21:10:00Z What’s a ktls</h2></a> I started work on ktls</a> and ktls-sys</a>,
a pair of crates exposing Kernel TLS offload</a>
to Rust, about two years ago</a>. kTLS lets the kernel (and, in turn, any network interface that supports it) take care of encryption, framing,
etc., for the entire duration of a TLS connection… as soon as you have a TLS connection. For the handshake itself (hellos, change cipher, encrypted extensions,
certificate verification, etc.), you still have to use a userland TLS
implementation. </a> </a> State of the fasterthanlime 2024 2024-08-07T07:14:05Z It’s time for some personal and professional news! TL;DR: I started a podcast</a> with James</a>,
I’m stable on antidepressants, I’m giving a P99 CONF</a> about my Rust/io_uring/HTTP work</a>,
I’m trying on “they/them” as pronouns, I’m open-sourcing merde_json</a>, rubicon</a> and others, I got a divorce in 2023, I found a new business model. Now that we’re on the same page: let’s unpack this a bit! </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Face cams: the missing guide 2024-03-02T18:00:00Z I try to avoid doing “meta” / “behind the scenes” stuff, because I usually feel
like it has to be “earned”. How many YouTube channels are channels about making
YouTube videos? Too many. Regardless, because I’ve had the opportunity to make my own mistakes now for a
few years (I started doing the video thing</a> in earnest in 2019), and because I’ve recently made a few leaps
in quality-of-life re: shooting and editing video, I thought I’d publish a few
notes, if only for reference for my future self. </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Just paying Figma $15/month because nothing else fucking works 2023-10-19T16:50:00Z My family wasn’t poor by any stretch of the imagination, but I was raised to
avoid spending money whenever possible. I was also taught “it’s a poor craftsman that blames their tools”, which
apparently means “take responsibility for your fuckups”, but, to young-me,
definitely sounded more like “you don’t deserve nice things”. I was also taught from an early age that I was born a sinner, incapable of doing
good by myself, and that all the earthly things were temptations, sent by the
devil to corrupt me (further I guess?) but also temporary, and that I shouldn’t
attach myself. </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> Cracking Electron apps open 2023-07-03T16:30:00Z I use the draw.io desktop app</a> to
make diagrams for my website. I run it on an actual desktop, like Windows or
macOS, but the asset pipeline that converts .drawio</code> files, to .pdf</code>, to .svg</code>, and then to .svg</code> again (but smaller) runs on Linux. So I have a Rust program somewhere that opens headless chromium, and loads just
the HTML/JS/CSS part of draw.io I need to render my diagrams, and then use
Chromium’s “print to PDF” functionality to save a PDF. </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a>$

A bit of personal context</h2></a>
For those keeping score, I went through major life events in 2023 — a divorce, a move, and the news that I might need a second round of jaw surgery.</p> </a> </a> </a>

fasterthanli.me

2025 Recap: so many projects

facet</h2></a>
facet is a project that I started working on in March of this year — that’s right, it’s only been ten months, yet it feels like an eternity.</p> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a>

Introducing arborium, a tree-sitter distribution

Does Dioxus spark joy?

Engineering a Rust optimization quiz

Making our own spectrogram

crates.io phishing attempt

color npm package compromised

The science of loudness

Summer fasterthanlime update

All color is best-effort

Introducing facet: Reflection for Rust

The virtue of unsynn

Open sourcing the home CMS

The promise of Rust

That health is mental

More devops than I bargained for

Impromptu disaster recovery

The case for sans-io

Catching up with async Rust

Highlighted code in slides

ktls now under the rustls org

State of the fasterthanlime 2024

Face cams: the missing guide

Just paying Figma $15/month because nothing else fucking works

Cracking Electron apps open

fasterthanli.me

2025 Recap: so many projects

facet</h2></a> facet is a project that I started working on in March of this year — that’s right, it’s only been ten months, yet it feels like an eternity.</p> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a>

Introducing arborium, a tree-sitter distribution

Does Dioxus spark joy?

Engineering a Rust optimization quiz

Making our own spectrogram

crates.io phishing attempt

color npm package compromised

The science of loudness

Summer fasterthanlime update

All color is best-effort

Introducing facet: Reflection for Rust

The virtue of unsynn

Open sourcing the home CMS

The promise of Rust

That health is mental

A bit of personal context</h2></a> For those keeping score, I went through major life events in 2023 — a divorce, a move, and the news that I might need a second round of jaw surgery.</p> </a> </a> </a>

More devops than I bargained for

Impromptu disaster recovery

The case for sans-io

Catching up with async Rust

Highlighted code in slides

ktls now under the rustls org

State of the fasterthanlime 2024

Face cams: the missing guide

Just paying Figma $15/month because nothing else fucking works

Cracking Electron apps open

facet</h2></a>
facet is a project that I started working on in March of this year — that’s right, it’s only been ten months, yet it feels like an eternity.</p> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a>

A bit of personal context</h2></a>
For those keeping score, I went through major life events in 2023 — a divorce, a move, and the news that I might need a second round of jaw surgery.</p> </a> </a> </a>