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Audio levels should be around -12db?


Joe Riggs

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Dunno..OP is more about being way UNDER optimal levels....overload issues out of pic, no?

 

In all my years of dealing with dailies in post, I can only think of two or three times where clients complained about the mono mix being too loud (and it was clipping in one particular case). But I dealt with a hundred cases where they complained about the mono mix being too soft. I would generally err on the side of making it a couple of dB loud rather than softer, but still protecting the iso feeds by making them at least -5dB lower.

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Um...uh...log waveforms? What do you mean? I thought you meant the way the audio meters were scaled. Id thats what you mean ill take a look when home.

Anyway, yeah, i guess logic isnt considered a pro audio app for most folks but i got it for recording music, plus its way cheaper than protools. Im used to it so, yeah, its what i use.

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Like the KFC Popcorn chicken commercial 15 years ago said.. ."Learn something fun and new every day!" I guess I'm only used to viewing in Log, if that's what the above means. Used to the dBFS meter, other just confuses me (sorry no idea if the waveform itself is log or linear In Logic) .

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When recording original dialog tracks, keep in mind that the 0-VU reference is nothing more than a reference for aligning digital recording/playback equipment to devices that have a VU meter.

 

I'll say it again for emphasis:

 

When recording original dialog tracks, keep in mind that the 0-VU reference is nothing more than a reference for aligning digital recording/playback equipment to devices that have a VU meter.

 

Also keep in mind that VU meters are Virtually Useless for recording original tracks, especially sources of high dynamic range, such as xylophones and the human voice. Therefor, the reference of -20dBfs for original voice tracks (what all of us on this group do) is also useless except to align other equipment upstream or downstream, for optimum gain structure. For this use, the reference tone could just as well be -3dBfs or -50dBfs, as long as it was noted, and as long as a meter was being used with enough resolution for signals that low.

 

Any level that doesn't exceed 0dBfs with the desired dynamic range (range of low an high levels) is fine, with the only possible exception being a 2-track mix that could, if combined to a single track, increase the total level by a maximum of 6dB. This would typically not be a factor in what most of us on this forum do (sync mono mixes plus single source iso tracks). Therefore, for most practical purposes, the perfect recording has it's highest peak(s) at 0dBfs while maintaining the desired dynamic range.

 

Glen Trew

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