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The bit depth and sample rate change with each sample. Can you hear the difference?

The source is a an original piece of music played by an orchestra (in a fairly bad room) captured with Neumann mics into Nagra 6 HD recorder at 96/24. Edit/mix/master by me.

4 versions were rendered from the mastering session with highest quality resampling mode and Ozone 4 MBIT+ dither.

turn your computer upside down for the answers

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ʇıq 9Ɩ zHʞ96 (Ɛ

ʇıq ㄣᄅ zHʞƖ˙ㄣㄣ (ᄅ

ʇıq 9Ɩ zHʞƖ˙ㄣㄣ (Ɩ

No one likes to see complaints about the things we’ve devoted our lives to.

One thing he said was “I don’t make music to impress engineers.” and I thought that was awesome it made me think. At a certain point in our careers, we know that we do good work. And at a certain point we have to trust ourselves and really not worry about what anyone (other than the clients of course!) thinks about our recordings, mixes, songs etc.

Don’t try to impress anyone except yourself (and your clients). If you know you did your best job, there’s no reason to second guess yourself. I don’t mean you should be arrogant, just confident in your abilities and the work you do.

A few random photos from the blog are below.

• 02/28/11: 5 Tips for a Great Acoustic Guitar Recording
• 02/27/11: The Sound Of A Defective Duet
• 02/25/11: Ear Training
• 02/23/11: Audio Metering Introduction
• 02/20/11: Strapping Young Lad in the studio recording Alien
• 02/15/11: How not to promote your studio on Craigslist
• 02/08/11: Maybeshewill Recording Video
• 02/02/11: The History of Echo (Echo) Chambers (Chambers)
• 02/01/11: AGZ Rewind – January 2011

Before we get into the DAW let’s briefly go over the way analog equipment is calibrated.

VU

Mic preamps, converters, hardware effect processors are all designed to work optimally at 0 VU. They can usually handle more than that before distorting, but 0 VU is where the signal to noise is best. VU stands for Volume Unit and is the oldest analog metering system. VU meters are relatively slow moving with at 300ms response time. This slow response of a VU meter better represents an averaged volume level close to how our hears work. 0VU is equal to +4dBu or professional line level.

dBu

The dBu scale measures the analog voltage level in our equipment with 0dBu calibrated to about 0.775 Volts. The u in dBu stands for ‘unloaded’ which means that the voltage is measured with a zero resistance load. Again, 0VU or +4dBu is the ideal constant voltage of all your analog components in the recording and monitoring chain.

Here’s an example chain – microphone, mic preamp, compressor, audio interface line input, Analog to digital converter, recording software.

The microphone signal gets boosted up to line level by the preamp. Line level goes into and out of the compressor into the audio interface. The analog to digital converter assigns bits representing the voltage coming in and sends the data to your DAW.

Digital Meters

Once it’s in your DAW the level you see will not be 0 on your track meters, it will actually be closer to -18dBfs depending on the calibration. This may seem like a really low level but this is actually the optimal level that all the analog components that come before it.
Once you build up your song with several other tracks, you’ll be happy you have that extra headroom and lower noisefloor.

0VU = +4dBu = -18dBFS

This is the only thing you need to remember

dBFS

The dBFS meters show Decibels relative to full scale. Instantaneous digital levels below the 0dBFS absolute peak. When 3 consecutive samples pass 0 the clip light will come on.

dB RMS

Now what’s left is RMS metering. Some DAWs have this in addition to Peak metering on the master. Similar to how VU meters work, RMS meters show an average level. The RMS value relates to how loud a sound is perceived.
These days all music is mastered to peak just below 0dBFS, the unwritten standard is -0.3, but the song with the higher RMS level will appear to be louder.
There isn’t a widespread calibration standard for RMS metering so you’ll have to compare values from a few references to what you’re working on.

I recommend everyone get the free TT Dynamics Range meter. This is an extra large Peak and RMS meter in all plugin formats. I put this meter on my master right away and keep it open so I can always keep an eye on levels as I build the mix.

If you’re interested in this stuff, dig into this site for much more detail.

Found this incredibly funny Craigslist ad today, I can’t tell if it’s serious or not but I found it really funny. Reposting it here before it’s deleted. (click to embiggen)

via@Chris_Randall http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/muc/1894646334.html

What is up Dallas I am a classical orchestra conducter looking to conduct a GIGGING orchestra. No startups, I don’t care how rehearsed you are. Not looking to make it big, been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, just looking for a well trained professional orchestra that wants to jam on the weekends maybe play a few open mics or operas once in a while. NO ORIGINALS, just looking for covers. You know, Brahams, Mozart, Beethoven, maybe a little Rachmaninov for kicks. I can conduct the sh*t out of those! I have been conducting since I was 12. I have conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, The Philidelphia Opera Company, to name a few. Like I said, not looking to make it big again, but still want to work with PRO players with PRO attitudes. I have connections with the Myerson, and can get us booked there no problem. I have pro attitude and pro gear and pro transportation. My gear includes:

Newland Custom “Silhouette” Conductor’s Baton
Mollard Lanico 12″ Baton
Mollard Lanico 14″ GOLD series Baton
Manhasset M48 Symphony Music Stand (with podium light mod)
Perry Ellis Italian wool Tuxedo- regular Dinner Jacket or TAILS!
Patent Leather Shoes

YOU- Must have pro gear, tuxedos, shoes, 420 friendly, Hit me up and send me a sample of your orchestra-ing. I don’t care if it’s just a crappy demo your orchestra recorded in the garage. I’ll know if it’s good or not, and I’ll know if I can conduct the sh*t out of you!!!!!!!!

To save you some of the same headache, here is a Pro Tools Template I’ve set up using Kontakt 4 player. Use the import Session Data command to bring the tracks into your session.

*IMPORTANT* – Whenever you load a new Multi-patch in Kontakt you need to click the “reset out map” button. See image below.

Download the template here: DOWNLOAD