Loudness levels and YouTube

Good on you dazric - I like, use and would recommend Youlean for metering.

It can be different per any piece (better accuracy than normalizing).

In song or project (depending on your DAW) I'm either pushing high levels or sitting under maximum because of how things sound together.. but then later when passing final mix through to mastering, it's there when things like the Youlean loudness tool really helps find a final output volume for intended online or other distribution.

My ears (and normalize routines) are often very wrong (can be too loud) esp. after long sessions it's a risky guess and I don't trust normalize by itself - but Youlean (and others too) helps solve specifically what algorithms at certain online sites want (or work with best for end listeners). Just because one loud section is at maximum doesn't mean the overall LUFs reading will make the algos work for us.. but it's fussy stuff not everyone will care for.

It may be fine to trust our ears - and I often do for recordings for my own enjoyment (speeding along is OK) - but when really being fussy or by demand for specific output levels, we can benefit from a tool like this, to be more certain of meeting a specification.. not that it's required - but any track can sound better on things like Youtube or Spotify etc. if they are uploaded at a certain level.

Normalizing just means -?dB less than the one maximum incident on the track, which is not always the best for a dynamic track to shine.. but it's getting into fussy territory for sure.