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<blockquote data-quote="Rob Bolling" data-source="post: 74332" data-attributes="member: 1958">-18/20 dbfs quandry.I understand the theory and the voltage equation of -18-20dbfs equating&nbsp; to 0dbv, but I was taught the digital metering domain works differently&nbsp; largely because of this difference.&nbsp; Rip any CD that has been produced&nbsp; in the last 10 years and you will find the levels peaking between&nbsp; -0.3dbfs and 0dbfs.&nbsp; For summing purposes in a mixing environment I&nbsp; understand you would want to undershoot with enough safety buffer to&nbsp; leave plenty of headroom (as I have since the early 90s) but if you&nbsp; handed someone a CD that peaked at -18dbfs they would wonder what is&nbsp; wrong with it because it would play back exponentially lower than all&nbsp; their others.&nbsp; Heck, most CDs RMS between -8 and -15 depending on the&nbsp; source material.&nbsp; I have always been taught to gain stage my daw inputs&nbsp; to peak at -3db which is 50% of maximum digital potential, -6 would be&nbsp; 25% of max potential.&nbsp; Maybe digital boards meters are set up different&nbsp; than daw meters or I am just loosing my mind but I ran my 02R with 24&nbsp; channels between -6 and -3 on the meters and never had clipping on any&nbsp; channels or on my main outs.&nbsp; The way I have always understood it,&nbsp; -18/20 is simply considered the &quot;alignment&quot; or calibration level to&nbsp; match the voltage of analog meters to digital meters.&nbsp; There must be&nbsp; something we are disconnecting on here.I would appreciate more&nbsp; examples and explanation to help me understand what it appears I have&nbsp; been misunderstanding for about 20 years now.Or, to put it&nbsp; another way, &quot;This new learning amazes me.&nbsp; Now, tell me again how&nbsp; sheep&#039;s bladders may be employed to prevent earthquake.&quot;&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />~;-)~:wink:</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rob Bolling, post: 74332, member: 1958"] -18/20 dbfs quandry. I understand the theory and the voltage equation of -18-20dbfs equating to 0dbv, but I was taught the digital metering domain works differently largely because of this difference. Rip any CD that has been produced in the last 10 years and you will find the levels peaking between -0.3dbfs and 0dbfs. For summing purposes in a mixing environment I understand you would want to undershoot with enough safety buffer to leave plenty of headroom (as I have since the early 90s) but if you handed someone a CD that peaked at -18dbfs they would wonder what is wrong with it because it would play back exponentially lower than all their others. Heck, most CDs RMS between -8 and -15 depending on the source material. I have always been taught to gain stage my daw inputs to peak at -3db which is 50% of maximum digital potential, -6 would be 25% of max potential. Maybe digital boards meters are set up different than daw meters or I am just loosing my mind but I ran my 02R with 24 channels between -6 and -3 on the meters and never had clipping on any channels or on my main outs. The way I have always understood it, -18/20 is simply considered the "alignment" or calibration level to match the voltage of analog meters to digital meters. There must be something we are disconnecting on here. I would appreciate more examples and explanation to help me understand what it appears I have been misunderstanding for about 20 years now. Or, to put it another way, "This new learning amazes me. Now, tell me again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquake." ;)~;-)~:wink: [/QUOTE]

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