metering and k14 , and rms versus peak

i57dwun4yb1pt8

ive been starting from scratch with gain staging and monitor / room calibration
and decided to go with the k 14 setup

so ive calibrated using a test file and an spl meter .

and i use a k meter plugin on the master chan and
any tracks im tracking


so in this setup

0 db is = -14dbfs
( where 0dbfs is the top of the red in my converter )


now - when using the k meter

ive noticed though that things like snare drums , kicks etc tend to
have an rms around -18db in k14 rms scale ,
but can peak all the time on the peak meter at + 6db ( k14 peak scale )
( in reality = -8dbfs since 0db = -14 dbfs , then -14 +6 = -8 )


so when im tracking is this ok ?
- or what should i aim to get the snare or kick to rms at / and peak at ?

i guess its more of a question of - when tracking large transient sources
what rms do i aim for ?


and similarly for bass or guitars , vocals ?
what would the normal rms be / and peak for tracking these ( while still using k 14 )

to be honest - it sounds fantstically better than my previous setup
but i want to make sure im metering and gaining correctly for tracking .

any help thanks!

Obi-Jim

I'll do my best here,

Firstly, ignore rms. This is just a calculation of the average of the peaks. It is kind of an average reading. (it is peak amplitude divided by the square root of two). So, the signal can still clip even if this doesn't.

If you take -14dBFS as 0dB,which, correct me if I'm wrong, has taken everything into account and is actually +4dBu. That means you should aim to peak there, as you would aim to peak at 0dB on a desk. You have a bit of headroom for erroneous peaks though.

It can seem rather low alright. But sure it's all for the better to not have to worry about levels when you mix.

I have a 003 rack and it can be hard to keep signals that low if you use the preamps on it, especially with drums.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

Firstly, ignore rms. This is just a calculation of the average of the peaks. It is kind of an average reading. (it is peak amplitude divided by the square root of two). So, the signal can still clip even if this doesn't.

<<< OK , i can see that - see where the peak goes first not the rms . particularly on drums

If you take -14dBFS as 0dB,which, correct me if I'm wrong, has taken everything into account and is actually +4dBu. That means you should aim to peak there, as you would aim to peak at 0dB on a desk. You have a bit of headroom for erroneous peaks though.

<< yes, 4 dbu
seems abit hard to peak there though unless the rms is down around
- 30 db on snares kicks and some toms .



what you are saying is what I was thinking alright
thanks


im starting to think ive never had proper gain staging as this setup sounds
way clearer , present and full than usual.

i was always looking for that focus and clarity of each element ,
and this seems to do it - everything cuts through nicely with no major tweaking.

and the monitoring seems to connect to the music better , the speakers seem to disappear
and you just have nice full soudning music.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

here is how it seems to work out for me

http://postimage.org/image/1zevkbujo

ie kick and snare vu is much lower than kick and snare peak readings

these settings seem to work best for me.

Obi-Jim

seems abit hard to peak there though unless the rms is down around
- 30 db on snares kicks and some toms .

Again, forget the rms. Especially on drums, it is giving you no useful information at all. It's like this: Drums are transient, a quick sharp hit then silence. A bass guitar might have long held notes. If you zoom into the tracks in your daw, you will see that the bass track is much fuller with waveforms than the drums, hence the average (or rms) is much higher for a bass, and drums always have transient and silence and a low rms (unless you start to compress or whatever).

So rms is no help. To be honest, I have never needed to look or know anything about rms values for a mix or recording session. The idea of keeping the gain staging correct is to ensure that equipment sends and receives +4dBu so that equipment voltages can be uniform.
When everything is kept in order it's just one less thing to think about and the audio can take care of itself. It's not that this is a better way to do it or anything, it's that when it's done this way all the equipment is being used as it was designed to be, so sounds the way it should and all cables (internal and external) are passing along voltages that they expect.

So, get a good signal to noise ratio, adjust all channels to peak at -14dBfs, now don't worry about your level again, adjust back to there if you compress or eq significantly with the make up gains. This is how equipment is designed. Really nice preamps etc expect to receive 0dB and when you overdrive them beyond that, this is what gives them some of their character. So, there are people out there with really nice pre amps and compressors but they have no idea how to get their moneys worth.

Oh and by all that logic, your final stereo master should be ....... ? (that's another days work)