What is the Ideal dB Level?

What Is The Ideal Decibel Level For Audio Mixdown?

  • +4dBFS

    Votes: 3 3.0%

  • 0dBFS

    Votes: 24 24.0%

  • -6dBFS

    Votes: 71 71.0%

  • +18dBSPL

    Votes: 2 2.0%
  • Total voters
    100
Emmapeel9 said:
When do we find out if we have won or not? Yeah!
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Well excluding the red herrings, that only leaves two choices... -6dBFS and 0dbFS... silly poll but I knew some of those new to audio might get something from it. If we start out talking about RMS, K-14, K-20, 85dBSPL and 0VU in classical terms a lot of those who read this post would be turned off. My philosophy, start out simple and build from there.

The answer, at least according to my school of learning and experience, is -6dBFS. But really peak value anywhere between -6dBFS and -12dBFS is ok for audio mixdown.

If anyone has anything to add, please do.

-Hakim
 
I think I may have already answered this. didin't reread the thread, but as long as your track is below clipping(-0.01db)you can use the gain knob to adjust everything, so it doesn't matter.

If it's at -0.01db you can turn it down to -18db without compromising anything and vice versa.

So the next engineer who's hands it reaches can set it's gain according to their preference.
 
deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup said:
I think I may have already answered this. didin't reread the thread, but as long as your track is below clipping(-0.01db)you can use the gain knob to adjust everything, so it doesn't matter.

If it's at -0.01db you can turn it down to -18db without compromising anything and vice versa.

So the next engineer who's hands it reaches can set it's gain according to their preference.
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Yep, as long as the mix is correct and not clipping your right. Sometimes though if you turn poor recordings up too high (even below 0db clipping) they will distort.
 
Excellent thread, especially the fab contributions by *73 and Moses.

If you use the forum search facility, you'll find a long thread about compression, in which a quick user's guide to understanding compression was given by me and deftly corrected and added to by Moses. It ties in very nicely with this thread, and deals with important issues such as crest factors and how compression affects them.

Carry on.
 
I'd say anywhere between -6dBFS and -15dBFS should leave enough headroom for the mastering engineer...

There's a couple other things u might also want to consider while mixing before you send it out to a mastering engineer...

-Panning should be moderately wider than how you actually want it panned in the final master... the mastering process tends to narrow the entire mix

-Assuming you're making music whereby the vocals are generally accepted to be the loudest part of the final master you're going to want them to stand out in terms of loudness in the mixing stage a little more than you'd naturally think them to... the mastering process also involves "blending" all the elements together and as a result vocal levels will "sit" exactly where they're supposed to in the final master if they were boosted in the mixing stage...
 
I had an important question: Which bit precision?
16 bit > 0 dB fs
24 bit > -6 dB to -18 dB fs
RMS values should also be discussed.
 
Didn't read the whole thread, just answering.

As long as the signal is below -0.0db(even -0.1db)it is fine. The next engineer can just turn it down lower without losing anything.

Depending on what will be processing the signal from that point, different headroom may be needed. Most dynamic processors(hardware/software/digital/analog)won't have enough room to get optimal performance out of a high signal even if it's below 0 because it has no room to work.

Think of it like a ceiling in your home. If your house is flooded to the point you only have inches of air to breathe, you can survive, but only by treading and keeping as much of your head above water as possible.

If the flooding stops at your ankles, you got all the room in the world to move around.

Optimal range is -6db to -12db. Some go as low as -18db
 
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+4dBFS doesn't exist.

dBFS mens it's relative to the FULL SPECTRUM, and that means the top is 0 dB.

most people say leave 3-4dB for mastering. I leave more than 15.
 
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what laurend wrote, bit depth also matters, if it's 16 bit, the more you go down, the more dynamics (bits) you lose. At 24 bit, you have a lot of dynamic range and don't have to worry about it.
 
T Prod. said:
what laurend wrote, bit depth also matters, if it's 16 bit, the more you go down, the more dynamics (bits) you lose. At 24 bit, you have a lot of dynamic range and don't have to worry about it.
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What laurend wrote doesn't make sense. He wrote,
laurend said:
I had an important question: Which bit precision?
16 bit > 0 dB fs
24 bit > -6 dB to -18 dB fs
RMS values should also be discussed.
Click to expand...
The poll asks "What Is The Ideal Decibel Level For Audio Mixdown". Despite the bit depth 0dBFS is not an option for a mixdown. I think what is trying to be expressed here is that due to the limitations of 16 bit audio, we should push the meters as much as possible, as our available SNR is much less than with 24 bit audio.

EDIT: replaced headroom with SNR (signal to noise ratio). This is more appropriate, the smaller headroom found in 16 bit audio is the result of lower SNR.
 
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