Decibel full scale
To understand more about dBFS’s role in digital audio, let’s take a closer look at dB and how it’s calculated, how dBFS is derived from dB, and how dBFS is used in digital audio systems. dB is widely used for measuring sound and audio metrics, including dB SPL, dBA, dB HL, dBu, and dBV.ĭBFS, however, is expressed differently from dB, and dB is not limited to digital systems. This reference to a maximum level conveys the full scale of levels available to audio signals in a digital audio system.ĭBFS is derived from decibels (dB), another commonly used measure for comparing audio signals and other values. It’s a unit of measurement used in digital audio systems.ĭBFS is expressed as a negative number relative to the maximum level available in a digital system.
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The mastering engineer will give themselves the headroom they need via a simple gain movement at the beginning of their chain.
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To summarise, the message is that the peak value doesn't make a difference either way. + Gain Staging in Logic Pro X SCENARIOS: Scenario 1ġdB of headroom but full dynamic range (no limiter)ĦdB of headroom but heavily squashed dynamics (limiter on mix bus)ĦdB of headroom, full dynamic range, and no clipping (no limiter on mix bus, peak level under 0) If your mix bus is clipping, a simple gain/trim stage at the end of the chain will suffice. Just make sure you aren't using a limiter on the mix bus before you bounce down and send off for mastering. To summarise, peak headroom isn't really the problem, dynamic range is. So what's the best advice for submitting mixes for mastering? Mix with loads of headroom, and simply apply (negative) gain on the mix bus if it's crossing 0dBFS. If you use a limiter and reduce the dynamics by 8dB but it has headroom because you simply turned it down post-limiter, then that completely misses the point. By doing this, the mastering engineer's job is 8dB harder to do. That's 8dB of information you have shaved off the top your audio prior to mastering. If you send a mix that had a brick-wall limiter on the mix bus, reducing the dynamics by 8 dB, that's 8dB that the mastering engineer will never see. When it comes to dynamics, mastering engineers can only work with the information that's given to them. Something that is highly dynamic has a larger range of volume, and something that is less dynamic is generally considered more dense or compressed. Dynamicsĭynamics, AKA dynamic range, refers to the variance in level of a given signal.
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However, what really matters, and what this is massively confused with is. I do this by ear as I work in a fixed monitoring setting. Technically, the amount of headroom that a mastering engineer needs is zero, as long as it's not clipping.įor example, if I receive a mix-down for me to master, the very first thing I will do is make a gain movement to where I want it to be prior to processing. I'm going to break this one down for you as there is a lot of confusion as to why.įirst of all, there is no significance to the value of 6 dB. This isn't bad advice but it's not to be taken too literally. I'm sure you've heard about the rule of thumb advising that you should leave 6dB of headroom for the mastering engineer. Headroom generally refers to the difference, measured in decibels, between zero (full scale / 0dbFS) and the peak value of the signal itself. In this article, we discuss the concept of headroom in mixing and mastering.