-.1 or -.3 on final mastered mix?

[eugenecanady]

i'm doing some mastering and there seems to be two strong opions out there. one says the final mix should be -.1 and the other says -.3. a few say 0 db but id rather play it a little safer. any opions on the matter here?

 

[Guest]

I mostly do -.3 for CD Mastering, and -.1 for mp3.

 

[saemskin]

not sure if this applies, but if you convert a -0.1 dbfs wav file to an mp3 it will clip. Very very small portions, but detectable by soundforge none the less. save to mp3 at least -0.5 or less, then normalize to -0.1 after the conversion.

 

[MASSIVE Mastering]

I make it a point to try NOT to have anything \"always\" in the hot zone. Occasional peaks at -0.3 aren't going to be an issue. Nor are occasional peaks at -0.1.

Making it so *most* of the time those levels are hitting hard (brick-walling), that's too hard.

Playback converters aren't going to like it, and there will probably be considerable amounts of reconstructive distortion if the levels are almost always hitting that high.

The more \"normal\" and dynamic the mix, the less I worry about the peaks. The more \"smashed\" the mix, the lower I try to keep the \"safety net\" on the limiter. Even though in the grand scheme, it's going to sound smashed whether it's peaking at -0.1 or -1.0... I just don't feel like overloading the converters on cheap CD players.

I'm running a project right now - The maximum peak so far is -0.9dBFS. If that's as loud as it gets, that's how loud it will be.

Whoops: -0.8... 8-[

(Sigh) I remember when \"Eh, -3.5, -4... That's pretty loud\" was pretty loud. The brickwall limiter is probably almost single handedly responsible for the downfall of audio.

 

[MASSIVE Mastering]

-0.8 it is!

For this project anyway...

 

[cAPSLOCK]

(Sigh) I remember when "Eh, -3.5, -4... That's pretty loud" was pretty loud. The brickwall limiter is probably almost single handedly responsible for the downfall of audio.

Well.. I dunno. The A/D converter, the CD, and radio have held hands with the brickwall limiter.

If we were still mastering to vinyl...

 

[saemskin]

At what point did people become to lazy to turn the volume knob up when they wanted \"louder\"?

 

[anha]

At what point did people become to lazy to turn the volume knob up when they wanted "louder"?

1996.

 

[MASSIVE Mastering]

That sounds about right...

But now, we can't be lazy - We have to keep turning everything DOWN. :lol:

 

[.mr chris]

That sounds about right...
But now, we can't be lazy - We have to keep turning everything DOWN. :lol:

jeee and what do you do, if your amp(in the living room THX badged...) has -60 to +20 range and recent CD compilations I dial in -57 -> -60 to listen to while eating/ having friends here and still too lound??? 8)

BK rulez....

Cheers,
.c

 

[dt]

not sure if this applies, but if you convert a -0.1 dbfs wav file to an mp3 it will clip. Very very small portions, but detectable by soundforge none the less. save to mp3 at least -0.5 or less, then normalize to -0.1 after the conversion.

Same here in Adobe Audition and others. I usually have to drop the .wavs by 1dB at least (even though my occasional peaks are limited to -0.5dB usually) to keep the mp3 from clipping. Sounds like a bug, or just a lack of design in mp3 encoders to me.