True peak is the highest level an audio signal really reaches once it is turned back into a continuous sound wave, measured in dBTP (decibels true peak), and it can be higher than the loudest sample stored in the file.
See your file's true peak next to Spotify's and Apple's limits.
Also used in: Track Ready Checker, Episode Ready Checker, Clipping Checker
A digital file stores samples, and the wave rebuilt between two samples can rise above both of them. These inter-sample peaks don't show on a simple sample meter, but they can distort when the file is converted to MP3, AAC or Ogg for streaming, or played on a cheap converter.
That's why delivery specs are written in dBTP rather than in sample peaks. Spotify asks for a true peak below -1 dBTP, and below -2 dBTP when the master is louder than -14 LUFS; Apple Podcasts asks for no more than -1 dBTP.
A producer's limiter is set to stop at -0.1 dB, and the meter in the editor never goes red. Measured with a true-peak meter, the master reaches +0.6 dBTP on the loudest snare hits, because the wave between samples overshoots.
After the streaming service encodes it, those hits crackle. Setting the limiter to true-peak mode with a ceiling of -1 dBTP fixes it without changing how loud the track sounds.
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