I can't understate how many times I have to go to the gym for a couple hours just to "reset" my ears. And I have terrible ears for this stuff. But after hearing it for a while I just know I have no chance without a break. And also it's funny how often I come back to it after the break and find that it actually sounds pretty good! I just couldn't hear it, my ears become numb to everything.^Edit: And what sounds loud at first sounds normal after a few minutes.
all about optimising levels and avoiding distortion (i.e. maintaining headroom). This is more critical with analogue paths than digital ones since most DAWs have massive amounts of internal headroom before you reach the master bus.
Also, don't confuse loudness with peak level. Though they are interrelated, they are different concepts:
the peak level is the maximum instantaneous level of your audio signal; loudness is the subjective level and therefore is a type of average level.
Seriously, I bought a pack of batteries and they wanted my address and number. I was so glad when they finally got a system and I didn't have to go through that every... single... time.RadioShack?
0dB doesn't sound like anything. What you're describing is symbolic language for digital full scale; (which again has no sound. It simply means maximum digital loudness at the threshold of digital distortion.)
You can test this when comparing various mastered tracks that 'appear' to sound louder than one another; yet all peak somewhere near 0dB Full Scale. 0 dBFS is simply a technical way to define the digital ceiling of 0 dBFS.
What it does sound like you are trying to describe, (but perhaps are understandably confused about), is how to achieve a consistent monitoring level... In which case you want to think of dB measured in SPL. And, how you might set up an environment where you consistently listen at the same level despite inconsistency.
This explains it relatively well, (in addition to describing some of the inconsistencies that happen when you start to mix and match multiple platforms with different loudness protocols....) At 8:30 Jon explains listening levels in a pretty straight forward and easy to understand way...
The A, C, Z, etc. weighting suffixes are filters that are applied to the audio measurement to reflect how a typical human listener would perceive the loudness of a tone or noise at defined levels. They are all measured in dB SPL.Great video but... I have both iPhone apps and a hardware dB meter. I've seen/read many "mixers/master" discuss setting "and always using" a constant playback output level to your monitors. The recommended levels I've encountered vary from a low of 70 to a high of 85 dB. What has not been a consistent recommendation in my research is the dB weighting scale used, as I've heard recommendations for dB-A, dB-C and dB-Z. In this video while the meter on his phone showed dB-A, he only said "dBSPL". How important is the choice of dB scale?