Metering/levels/dbs

[pk1]

Apologies if this makes no sense... at least I know what i'm trying to say lol...

Basically i'm just wondering how much attention I need to pay to the final levels of my mix. I normally just play the finished track through, then if it has gone over 0db, ill reduce it so its a few db under, & then send off to be mastered.

Now Ive started putting the Sonalksis Free G meter/channel vst on my master output, so I can read the meters more accurately. THis shows both peak & rms values. About how many db of dynamic range would you suggest to aim for? I realise its a case of using your ears but a rough idea for this style of music? I dont want it to sound too flat, but dont want my snares smacking through the mix and eating up all the headroom etc.

And about how many dbs under 0 should I be aiming the finished track to be in order to be sent off for mastering, ive seen some sites suggest -6db ish? And is this an issue if its all done in 32bit float within the DAW? and then sent to Medway for example to be mastered, because I thought the 32bit provides more headroom so no clipping occurs?

So overall whats the best condition for an unmastered wav to be in in terms of levels, dynamic range etc.

THanks

Paul

[przechuy]

Apologies if this makes no sense... at least I know what i'm trying to say lol...

Basically i'm just wondering how much attention I need to pay to the final levels of my mix. I normally just play the finished track through, then if it has gone over 0db, ill reduce it so its a few db under, & then send off to be mastered.

Now Ive started putting the Sonalksis Free G meter/channel vst on my master output, so I can read the meters more accurately. THis shows both peak & rms values. About how many db of dynamic range would you suggest to aim for? I realise its a case of using your ears but a rough idea for this style of music? I dont want it to sound too flat, but dont want my snares smacking through the mix and eating up all the headroom etc.

And about how many dbs under 0 should I be aiming the finished track to be in order to be sent off for mastering, ive seen some sites suggest -6db ish? And is this an issue if its all done in 32bit float within the DAW? and then sent to Medway for example to be mastered, because I thought the 32bit provides more headroom so no clipping occurs?

So overall whats the best condition for an unmastered wav to be in in terms of levels, dynamic range etc.

THanks

Paul

Check from one of todays topics created by Medway the one with sonnox/oxford video and watch the video about limiters .There the guy gives eexplanation to some basic idea of the tracklevels,limiting,dynamic reange etc might help a bit.

Because topic of levels is popular nowadayes,when ,as you will see also in mentioned video,we have loudness war and people no longer care about really sexy sound,just rather prefere to push the track levels louder and louder.

Diffrent aspects,also I once created a topic with question about clipping and even going above 0,Medway also added there some words of explanation .

We had the conlusion that sometimes persons that have the knowledge can go above 0 and use it as it affects in certain way the track,like people from swedish house mafia do and laidback luke .Though medway pointed,that he would not master such track.

Worth to browse a bit in past topics,we do not have here 10321654 posts daily so will be easy to find them.

[admin]

I use Wavelab's RMS which I know really well now from years of use. Rms levels can be anything from -12db low range all the way up to -7 or so.

I don't really check rms much and just go by ear, it can vary depending on the type of material so it's not really a good thing to go by. You can pretty much figure it out just by a'bing against other mixes. Really though the rms sorts itself out in the end.

What I would suggest is if you want you can use a limiter on the master and just make sure you don't go over 2-3db. This way you can catch the peaks, emulate somewhat what will happen in mastering all without going too far and giving you a false impression of you mixdown.

What you want to stay away from is accidentally having lots of limiting going on which influences your mix decisions as when the limiter is taken off for mastering the mix will be totally different sounding.

Peak wise it doesn't matter as long as it's under 0 and no clipping. There's no difference in -3 or -6 for instance. If I needed more headroom I'll simply lower the fader, in 32bit float there is no penalty for this. If anything you can shoot for -6 just incase there is a little spike somewhere in the mix, so it gives you some leeway to not accidently clip.

But as you said if you present 32float files then you can't clip so it's not a worry.

So the choices would be:

Send as 16bit but you should be pretty close to 0

Send as 24bit, you can send something with levels well below 0 and be fine

Send as 32float and pretty much send it high or low ;-)


With good mix practice and not having high track levels most of your bounces should be below 0 any ways. I like to keep my track levels low and make up for it on the limiter and other stuff on the master, so if these are turned off it should automatically give a -3 or 4 db mix.

Hope this helps.