I reply only to you... When you say "anything above -24 is pointless" you mean "normalizing louder than -24"? So even with high dynamic music (like classical for example) you don't feel the risk of "music loss"?
An other interesting thing is that - as I was saying music normalized at -13 (obviously that's the highest peak!) goes out (through Delta 1010) and get the mixer i bit low... VU meter (with no gain) goes around -15/-10... BUT if I normalized a sinus 1000Hz (so constantly -13dBFS) mixer's VU meters go crazy... positive values? Is there anything wrong? Thank you Alessio 2012/12/11 Cowboy <[email protected]>: > On Tuesday 11 December 2012 11:11:56 am Alessio Elmi wrote: >> @Cowboy: well I was born in the digital era and I am not very >> confident with analog/electrical measures. I am learning >> step-by-step... > > OK. > There is one reason to up the levels. ONE ! > That reason is noise. > All amplifiers have a noise floor. > Pick any audio amp. Disconnect and short out the input. > Turn the volume all The WAY UP ! > What do you hear ? You hear the self-noise of the amp. > THE reason to make the content louder, is to push that noise as > far down as possible. The louder the content, the less you turn > up the volume, the less noise is *added* by that amp. > >> Apart from that do you think that a CDrip wave normalized ad -13dBFS >> could be compromised? I mean in terms of definitions (quantization of >> 16 bit depth)... I have an entire catalog that way. > > The noise floor limit of 16 bit sampling is -96 dbfs. ( zero = fs ) > The lower you normalize, the higher you need your output gain. > Normalizing at -13 gives you 83 db dynamic range. > ( the usable difference between your peak and the noise floor ) > Normalizing higher, and risking SEVERE distortion at FULL volume > regardless of where your level is set, gives you more range to the noise > floor. > > So, the question becomes what's the maximum dynamic range of all > of the equipment after and including your first DAC ? > There is no point whatever in exceeding that, because that noise will > be present and above the noise of your playback anyway. > > Humans can have hearing dynamic range that exceeds 100 db, but that > means from can not detect, even in a quiet room, to where hearing > stops, and real pain begins. > It's theoretically possible under ideal conditions for humans to hear > the full limit of 16 bit recording, but that means a quiet room and good > ears for the low passages, and pain ( not hearing ) at the loudest passages. > Theoretically. > > In other words, if your feeding a really good broadcast transmitter with > a remarkable 72 db dynamic range, 96-72=24 db, so normalizing to anything, > repeat ANYTHING above -24 is pointless, because all your doing then > is substituting transmitter noise for recorded noise, and reducing head room. > You are trading head room, and risk of bad distortion, for blinky lights > on your meter. Nothing more, because any gain you have at that stage > will be lost in the transmitter noise. > In a case like this, that extra 10 db of headroom can save your bacon > when a "hot jock" drives things to the wall. > > If you're "broadcasting" over internet, then your maximum range is > the typical sound card in consumer gear. About 35 db, give or take. > > For me and mine, I'd rather stay away from the certainty of severe > distortion running out of head room, in favor of the maybe some ONE > out there *might* notice a little noise on the quietest passages. > > -- > Cowboy > > http://cowboy.cwf1.com > > How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're > on. > > _______________________________________________ > Rivendell-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.rivendellaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/rivendell-dev _______________________________________________ Rivendell-dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.rivendellaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/rivendell-dev
