String for FB2K Integrated LUFS Readout in Playlist (Replaces buggy DR component)

With the help of a couple of very kind souls over at the HydrogenAudio Foob2000 forums, I have finally discovered how to get a proper Integrated LUFS readout in the Foobar playlist.

Original thread is here:

[Request] Scan files for LUFS values

I had been using the very buggy DR Meter component for a long time, but it only gave peak, RMS and DR figures, the latter of which isn't used by most audio engineers these days. I wanted to be able to use the more standardised LUFS Integrated figure instead (which is much closer to perceived loudness). For a few years now, the FB2K implementation of ReplayGain has used the LUFS measurement. We just needed to get at it. So I thought I'd share the process for anyone else who might be interested!

For it to be useful you first need to scan your entire collection with ReplayGain. You may have done this already, but if not: Go to Library - Album List - All Music, you can right click it, and select ReplayGain - Scan per-file track gain. Depending on your Library size, this could take a while. My 1TB FLAC collection took a couple of hours.

When it is done, you'll get a screen with the results pop up, you now need to click on Update File Tags. Cue another couple of hours wait...

When this is done, go to File - Preferences - Display - Default User Interface - Playlist View - Custom Columns

Click "Name" and type in "LUFS". On the right of LUFS click the "Pattern" part and paste in this string:

$if(%__replaygain_track_gain%,$puts(temp,$num($sub($replace(%__replaygain_track_gain%,.,,+,),-21800),5))$ifgreater($get(temp),20000,-,+$puts(temp,$num($replace($sub($get(temp),20000),-,),5)))$num($substr($get(temp),2,3),1).$substr($get(temp),4,4))

Click "OK" to close the Preferences, go back to the regular FB2K interface and right click on a Playlist column, e.g. "File Name", hover on "Columns", and now select your "LUFS" column.

Voila, you now have the Integrated LUFS readout for every single file in your collection, shown in the regular playlist. This is VERY cool as if you make a play list of your whole collection, you can sort by loudness, and see which of your albums are the most destroyed.