Levels on Pro Tools in Post Prod.

[DannyVanSpreuwel]

Dear all,

What do you take as a reference level in a post-prod. for film/tv?
Since Pro Tools works in a digital environment there are a lot of reference levels. -20dBFS / -15dBFS / -9dBFS ?????
The Tascam DA88 have their level at -20dBFS as 0dBu. Since Dolby Digital also has 20dB headroom above Dolby Level (0dBu) could we keep this as a international standaard level?

Danny

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Sound with Vision.
www.metasound.nl (http://www.metasound.nl)

[This message has been edited by DannyVanSpreuwel (edited December 15, 2000).]

[JKD99]

Hi Danny
In short, -20

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Joe Milner
Puget Sound
Los Angeles

[JKD99]

Oh, and pink noise at 85db for film, although some TV mixers reference to 83 (or sometimes even lower) to compensate for the higher noise floor in a home environment.

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Joe Milner
Puget Sound
Los Angeles

[Arno Peeters]

It was on the boards before: http://www.digidesign.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/002884.html
Some good info there...




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Arno Peeters
Tape TV Productions (http://www.tapetv.nl)

[DannyVanSpreuwel]

Thanx Joe and Arno!

Danny :-)

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Sound with Vision.
www.metasound.nl (http://www.metasound.nl)

[CCash]

One thing I didn't get from Arno's link... While they covered broadcast levels pretty well, what about audio for DVD video? Can't you take the same "hot as you can get it" approach that we take on CD with music?? Are the volume wars happening on the DVD front as well?

Thanks for any help, Curt.

[Ang1970]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">quote:<HR>Originally posted by CCash:
Are the volume wars happening on the DVD front as well?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hopefully there is a God in Heaven who would not allow such a thing to happen.

[Arno Peeters]

Again, there was a tread on that one too: http://www.digidesign.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/003759.html

I think/hope that with the need for dynamics with surround and filmsound, this doesn't need to happen: 5.1 broadcast will still take some time, so mass-madness won't happen that fast.... right ?!




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Arno Peeters
Tape TV Productions (http://www.tapetv.nl)

[editor]

Curt,

So far, all the DVD's I have seem to have a really good dynamic range and they are plenty loud when a "Stinger" kicks in, as the slasher slashes... I think film and music are different in this arena. A film without dynamics just sucks horribly, but music without dynamics is now the norm.

Regards

e

[bslack]

I think the simple answer to the original questions is -20db. DTS, SRD, SDDS, and the Analog transfer houses all use -20db. For broadcast BetaSP, D1-D6, HDCam are also -20db.

Thankfully Digi fixes a major problem with the 888 in the 888/24. 888s will only go down to ~-19. I have modified them the past, but it is no fun (not to mention voiding waranty).

Tascam and Alesis also screwed the pro market with -16db and -15db (DA88 and ADAT, respectively). There is a simple hardware mod for the DA88, but it changes the input inpedence. If you are using the analog section of an ADAT, -15db is the least of your wories. Tascam does offer a software mod for the DA88 that allows switching between -16/-20 similar to DA98 (well worth the $300).

All Digi stuff comes standard -18db (like Tascam DA60, and panasonic dats), but lukilly the 888/24s are easily adjusted.

A plea to DIGI. . . . . "PLEASE!!! everything -20db!!"

Brian