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Ideal level for Amplifier?

ZeroZero

Senior Member
As many know I am in the middle of re-setting up my studio, regurgianimating my fossilised knowledge, and setting up templates

It has occurred to me that if you have a sample playing at pp, mf, ff etc, then its actual level in DB is contingent on the level in my amplifier. Ramp it up and even pp sounds deafening. Fortunately my Amp does have a DB read out. Putting aside the fact that we all feel comfortable at different DB levels, what is the ideal level for the amp? Is there one?

Composing at the wrong level I fear, could lead to either mf being used as p, or mf being used as f. Which could be pretty disastrous.

Opinion Wise Magi?

Z
 
Fortunately my Amp does have a DB read out.

dB what? is it telling you input dbfs? in that case it should scale like your DAW output.

is it claiming to tell you SPL information? is there are microphone plugged into it? otherwise unless your amp knows what speaker it's plugged into, how far you're sitting away, and is calibrated to something in the first place, there is zero reason to believe this number is based on anything but marketing. even with all that information there's a lot of margin for error.

(in the context of this question, clarifying "dB" is important. the base level distinction between DBFS and dB SPL are completely different conversations. )
 
I would recommend getting an SPL meter to calibrate your monitoring system. Based on my own experience, I recommend calibrating at 75dB SPL, for safer extended listening periods. There are many tutorials online on how to do this.

Good luck!
 
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