Any mastering engineers - headroom?

[samkablaam]

yeah, look at what sharm put. and also what depone put. and also maccs answer in the moneyshot thread. basically, they can turn it down, but giving the headroom requirement helps stop mastering engineers being sent mixes that have intersample peaks which dont get shown on your daw and also, doing less in the mastering stage is better, if u can turn it down before printing your mix, then turn it down rather than leave it to mastering. every bit of processing at the mastering stage will bring with it its own errors and noise.

[Depone]

I do have a question on this.
In reference to the first post:
Can't they just turn the volume down on the 24 bit .WAV if necessary?

They can, but having the least potentially damaging processes as possible the better

[Electric_Head]

ha. well he explained it for a start.

HAHAHA, too true.
I understood it as Sharmaji wrote it but certainly didn`t express it correctly.
In fact, I expressed it more the way you would compare a pirate to a 100m sprinter.
badly

[FuzionDubstep]

Because if it is peaking at 0db and the engineers turn it down they are turning everything in the mix down which can mean already quiet things can get lost in the mix whereas you can individually turn the channels down so that it has some headroom and everything fits into the mix without getting lost.

[Ldizzy]

^we've just answered that..

its not only a matter of a LOUD track...

its a matter of a track that may be exported with peaks, without the meters actually showing so...

after its exported, then its exported.. and turning down the volume wont help that..

[Medik]

Because if it is peaking at 0db and the engineers turn it down they are turning everything in the mix down which can mean already quiet things can get lost in the mix whereas you can individually turn the channels down so that it has some headroom and everything fits into the mix without getting lost.

Surely if gain structuring is right at the mix stage then sending that mix with 0db headroom and the engineer turning it down to -6db shouldn't be any different to sending it at -6db in the first place, it shouldn't make a difference to whether things get lost in the mix or not. Like someone has already said it is nothing to do with gain structuring and individual parts fitting in the mix.

[Littlefoot]

Be aware of what processing might come directly after the ME loads the audio into there DAW. If I need to boost something and cut nothing before hitting the hardware, there is a risk of clipping, which is a big no no.

The difference between a 24 bit digital mix exported at -0dBfs and -3dBfs (peak) is nominal, but taking a stereo 24 bit mix and turning it down before any processing has even been applied could spell trouble ahead, especially if heavy processing is required to achieve the outcome the client wants.

[dubesteppe]

so say an engineer asks for 6 db of head room. do you turn your master down to -6, and allow for some peaks above -6db? or do you put a limiter on and set the ceiling to -6 db?

[macc]

You just turn your master fader down until the peak level is -6dBFS.

That might mean turning it down 1dB, it might mean turning it down 30dB if you're mixing like a nutcase and clipping everything by 24dB.

[macc]

Some serious dead thread digging going on here btw... WTF?

[ehbes]

ARISE FROM THE DEPTHS OF DSF!!!!!