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Old 11-08-2010, 01:07 PM   #35
ngarjuna
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jnif View Post
I have only little experience with analog recording, preamps and mixing consoles. However, I would like to undesrtand how these recommendations translate to typical home recording setups. Like electric guitar plugged in directly to some audio interface (hi impedance input with internal preamp).
Should I set the output level of the internal pre-amp so that guitar track's recording meter in Reaper does not go above -20 dBFS?
Don't confuse peak dB with average. 0 VU = -20 dB is referring to an average level not a peak (which is why someone in this thread pointed out that if you're only watching peak meters, you can crudely estimate by aiming your peaks for -6 to -12 or thereabout). Peak meters and average meters are not the same thing. Old VU meters (which is what the whole professional industry is built on) are average style meters.

But to answer your question more directly: you would want to aim your average level on the recording meter for whatever you are using for 0 VU (many indeed use -20 dBFS).

Quote:
If yes, then what is the reason for that? I have always thought that modern audio interfaces (even inexpensive ones) can record at very high quality also at -1 dBFS levels. Can you show some real measurement data that show how recording at -20 dBFS is better than recording at -1 dBFS?

I think that real scientific measurable facts and human psychology are somehow mixed in this this discussion. For example I agree with this comment:

But isn't this only a human workflow thing? Humans tend to make better mixing decisions when there is more headroom to work with. If track meters are all the time close to clipping, then humans may get confused and start using improper (bad sounding) methods to keep the master bus levels below clipping. This has nothing to do with accuracy and quality of analog signal chain or DSP math inside DAW.

I admit that I have a lot to learn in this subject. So, I might have understood some of this discussion totally wrong. Hopefully I will learn something in the end.


jnif
All of this has been very well explained in this thread; re-read post #16 by Yep where he explains specifically the scientific reasons (with excellent background for the uninitiated) behind your question. It's not psychology, it's a simple matter of electronics.
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