Reference levels-quick question

[TheVectorWarrior]

Hi everyone,

we've been asked to do quite an important surround mix for something and they've stated:

"Audio can be -20 DB OVU (full-bit rate), but do not exceed the peak."


do they mean master so the peaks hit -20DBFS. I presume that's what it means but it's written in an odd way and i wanted to check with people more in the know with this sort of stuff.

Thank you

[iamstudios]

No. I think it means average audio can be around -20 dbFS (= 0 VU if you're in the US), peaks usually are 10dB over that (-10dbFS) if it's for broadcast. Otherwise peaks could go up to 0dBFS, but that's LOUD! (103dBSPL!!) Never came across audio that had to have peaks at -20dbFS.

Do you have experience with mixing (surround)? If it's as important as you say you might consider having a pro sit with you...

[TheVectorWarrior]

Ah, that was my second guess. But as it doesn't state what the peaks should be other than the -20DBFS figure i thought it must've been referring to that.

Yeah, i've lots of experience with surround, just not reference levels... i left films to do games a few years back and had forgotten how things worked in the crazy film/tv land

thanks for the help