• Forum Member
• Status: Offline
• Posts: 9
• Joined: Oct 31st, 2008
• Mac OS

Hi,

Right now I am listening to headphones at a setting of -22dB.

I often hear the dialogue while editing should be between -12dB and -6dB.

Don't ever want to go above 0dB.

My room's natural level is about +60dB.

If I crank up the stereo, it gets up to +110dB.

Anyone able to help me put this in perspective?


very confused.

Thanks!

Jeff

• Administrator
• Status: Offline
• Posts: 8890
• Joined: Dec 16th, 2006
• MacBookPro 2.2 Quad-Core i7
• Mac OS 10.6.8

Hi Jeff,

This might be of interest:

http://www.exair.com/en-US/wiki/Wiki%20Pages/sound%20levels.aspx

When you say your headphones are set to -22dB what do you mean? In Logic? On your audio interface?

Going over 0dB on Logic's master output will likely cause clipping and distortion.

Your final output for video/film should reside somewhere between -12dB and -6dB. This means when you are outputting your final mix/master, make sure your output signal doesn't exceed these values (on the Channel strip level meter). You can use a limiter to stop the signal exceeding a certain value...

How loud your stereo can go is of no relevance to the output within Logic.

At the end of the day dB are a relative way of measuring sound levels.

Hope that helps :)
Rounik

• Forum Member
• Status: Offline
• Posts: 9
• Joined: Oct 31st, 2008
• Mac OS

Rounik,

Thanks for that link, very helpful.

I'm trying to figure out why everything isn't working on the same scale.

If I record a conversation at 60dB, why is it showing up as -12dB to -6dB?

why isn't it showing up as 60dB?

why is 0dB the limit for how loud something should be?

why isn't it a positive value?

• Forum Member
• Status: Offline
• Posts: 9
• Joined: Oct 31st, 2008
• Mac OS

thanks for the help!

• Administrator
• Status: Offline
• Posts: 8890
• Joined: Dec 16th, 2006
• MacBookPro 2.2 Quad-Core i7
• Mac OS 10.6.8

Hi,

No problem!

You might be interested in this tutorial on Sound:
http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/sound

Also, Martin talks in depth about amplitude, frequency and sample rates in the Core Logic 8: Logic 101
http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/Logic8101

Hope that helps :)
Rounik