Monitoring Levels????

M

MILLSY5

New member
Hi guys,

I have just read an article which states when mixing down the ideal level to monitor at is 85db SPL. How can i tell whether i'm monitoring at this level or not??

This also got me onto thinking that i dont realy understand the level meters on my equipment. They go from -48 to 0. What is this a measurement of and how does it relate to db SPL??


Thanks for your time as always.


Keith
 
The meters don't correllate to SPL.... to measure SPL you need a sound level measurement device... Radio Shack sells basic ones that are good enough to measure 65dB - 110dB with a reasonable amount of accuracy.
 
It is important to understand that dB is not an absolute measurement, but a measurement of a ratio. Saying that a signal is at 110dB doesn't mean anything until you define what 0dB is. In SPL measurements, there is a constant level of sound that is said to be 0dB. It has something to do with the sound of a mosquito at 3ft away. :) See more at Bel in the WikiPedia.

On your meters, and in your computer, 0dB is defined at the signal strength that will cause your digital hardware to clip. That's why you always want your tracks to be less than 0dB, and why your meters show a negative scale.

If you want to correlate the level on your meters with the loudness of your monitors, you could do some measurements and a lot of math. It's probably not worth it, though. Just get the meter that BlueBear mentioned. :)
 
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