The comparison
Same mix. Level-matched.You pick the winner.
We sent one premaster to Echo Forte, LANDR and BandLab and trimmed the results to the identical section. You’ll hear each one at the loudness it actually delivers; louder always sounds better, so when you want the fair fight, the level-match toggle plays them all at -16.5 LUFS and what’s left is the mastering.
Fumble
Club / house · same premaster sent to every service
Native loudness: exactly what each service delivers
Measured on this exact excerpt. Playing at each service's delivered level.
LANDR and BandLab are trademarks of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Echo Forte and do not endorse this comparison. Masters generated from the identical premaster using each service’s standard settings.
Read the numbers
Louder and more dynamic.
The usual trade is loudness for life: push the level and the dynamics flatten. On this track Echo Forte delivers 1.5 LU more loudness than LANDR and 5.3 LU more than BandLab, with loudness range still in the same band — extra level that didn’t cost the track its punch.
| Master | Integrated | True peak | Loudness range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your MixUnmastered premaster | -28.4 LUFS | -12.5 dBTP | 6.8 LU |
| Echo ForteClub preset · $10 | -8.5 LUFS | -1.0 dBTP | 5.2 LU |
| LANDRBalanced · Medium | -10.0 LUFS | -0.3 dBTP | 5.6 LU |
| BandLabFree mastering | -13.8 LUFS | -0.2 dBTP | 4.9 LU |
Measured with ffmpeg ebur128 (BS.1770, true peak) on the exact excerpts in the player above. Your mix is included as the baseline: it peaks at -12.5 dBTP, which is why it sounds so much quieter before mastering.
Methodology
A fair fight, on purpose.
A comparison is only worth publishing if it would survive your own scrutiny. Here is exactly how this one was made.
- 01
One premaster, three services
The identical WAV went to each service. Echo Forte used the Club preset; LANDR ran Balanced at Medium loudness; BandLab used its free mastering. Standard settings, no cherry-picking, no re-runs.
- 02
Aligned to the sample
Each master was trimmed to the same musical section and aligned by cross-correlation, so when you flip mid-play you stay at the exact same moment in the track.
- 03
Level-matched playback
The player opens at delivered loudness, exactly what each service hands back. Louder reliably wins blind tests even when it's worse, so the level-match toggle plays every master at -16.5 LUFS via playback gain only, files untouched, for the honest A/B.
- 04
Nothing else touched
No EQ, no post-processing, no editing beyond the trim. The measurements table is generated from the same excerpts you're hearing, and every number can be reproduced with ffmpeg.
The only test that matters
Run the same comparison on your own track.
Upload your mix and hear the previews free. No account, no card — pay $10 only if you keep one.
Hear your master freeLANDR and BandLab are trademarks of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Echo Forte. Comparison masters were generated from the identical premaster using each service’s standard settings, unmodified apart from trimming to a common section for side-by-side playback.