[LAU] metering, mixing levels was Re: Ardour: exporting woes

Probably the best article I have found on metering, setting levels, etc. during mixing is the article written by Bob Katz around 2000 and published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. Bob has made a slightly updated version available on his web site in two parts: http://www.digido.com/articles-and-demos12/13-bob-katz/22-level-practices-p… http://www.digido.com/how-to-make-better-recordings-part-2.html The short version is use the same technique as film mixers, use a consistent mixer gain calibrated with band limited pink noise and a sound pressure level (SPL) meter and mix so it sounds good. On Sun, March 20, 2016 4:06 pm, jonetsu(a)teksavvy.com wrote: Unfortunately there are no standards for CD mixing and mastering practice, so your choice often becomes make your mix sound good, and the listener will have to adjust volume between different recordings, or compress the dynamic range so your mix sounds like current rock recordings, which will probably reduce the quality of the sound. Film soundtracks tend to be more consistent, and I think it is a valid argument to say that your mixes are made for optimum sound quality on a quality stereo (or surround) system, but obviously not everyone feels the same as evidenced by the number of recordings which are so compressed they sound distorted. The AES has published a recommendation for streaming normalization which could, if adopted, help reduce the desire to make recordings seem louder by extreme compression (the recommendation would result in such recordings having gain reduced while streaming). http://www.aes.org/technical/documents/AESTD1004_1_15_10.pdf -- Chris Caudle