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Old 11-07-2010, 04:55 PM   #13
Lawrence
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beingmf View Post
How many long-time engineers do you know, Lawrence, that still record far too hot?
A lot. I was in a PTHD room (small project studio) a few days ago and they were tracking right up into the high areas of the meters, right up near the red. I kept my mouth shut.

Many people just cannot quantify the fact that the empty space there in digital - as relates to analog signal levels - is by design, intentional, a safety margin... and has nothing to do with sound quality... so they "fill 'er up". If you follow analog practices you'll never really even have to worry about clipping or any of that... which is why they designed it that way.

Otherwise converters would be calibrated to -3 or something instead of -18.

If you get tracks from people like that to mix, trim 'em down before doing anything else. That also goes for sample loops that are blasted up near digital 0, depending on what you're doing with them.

Last edited by Lawrence; 11-07-2010 at 05:02 PM.
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