Re: Calibrating my listening level (was: Re: dB FS --> dB SPL ?)

Boris Lau <boris.lau@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
For setting a standard reference listening volume I followed the
procedure I found in various articles on the net: I put up pink noise at
-18 dB FS (RMS) and brought that up to 83 dB SPL, using C-weighting.

Meaning that if you COULD get your RMS level up to full scale, it would
be at 101 dBSPL.

I was surprised how loud that is. I can't imagine to listen to music
peaking at -0.1 dB FS for a long time at this level for mixing. Am I
doing something wrong here? Maybe I need to incorporate headroom into
this equation, so my music does not come anywhere near 0 dB FS during
mixing or mastering?

The difference between peak and RMS levels varies so much that you can't
even really compare them. You could listen to a local FM station with
severe processing and find less than 6 dB difference between peak and
average level. You could listen to a raw trumpet track and find
nearly 40 dB difference between peak and average level.

(This, incidentally, is why almost everyone limits close-miked brass... bass
instruments have a very spiky waveform, so if you don't use a microphone
that smooths that out, you need to do it electronically or you wind up
with very low average levels and very high peak levels on mixes.

I know this is the recommendation of the movie industrie, and I've read
somewhere that 80 dB is fine for music. But intuitively I'd pick a
setting that would correspond to 70-75 dB, otherwise it's just so
frickin' loud. Or do you all mix that loud and I have to get used to it?

I mix at various levels, so I know what things sound like at various
levels. Sometimes I turn it down to a whisper and see if I can still
make the words out with it turned way down. Sometimes I turn it up
loud and listen for noise problems.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
.

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