leq(a) when loudness maximizing

[OceanMan]

First off, I am not what you would call a professional mastering engineer. My true focus is recording and mixing, but it often times ends with me doing the mastering work for local bands on a budget. With that being said, I record mainly metal and hard rock. One of the main things I am spending my time doing when pseudo mastering is maximizing loudness while keeping any audible distortion at bay.

So here is my question. What exactly is leq(a) compared to RMS? How how do you real mastering engineers feel about leq(a) when it comes to your overall levels? Do you look mostly at RMS or do you consider leq(a) as well? Lately when I mastering to a peak level of around -10 RMS I noticed that the leq sometimes approaches -8 and even -7 db at times. Is this typical? Just looking for a bit of feedback, kind of in the dark here. Thanks!

[pmx]

Leq, Long-term equivalent, is RMS measured over a period of time.

i think Leq doesn't really have a place in music, but more in live sound and noise control, where dB(a) is too momentarily and Leq(a) gives you a better idea of the overall 'loudness' of a concert.

ITU.BS1770 + R128 is a better approach: a target LU combined with a Loudness Range gives you more information about the distribution than Leq does.