Need some level help from some level heads

[pipelineaudio]

I am just now trying to remember how to align an analog machine( used to do just fine only 5 years ago and it all slipped away) and it occured to me I have NO idea where zero is in my studio!

So now Im setting calibrations with a voltmeter( oh boy right dont flame me yet)

some of the digital devices' levels just seem odd

does anyone know about where 0VU of +4dbM ( I think its dBM ???) is on an alesis masterlink?

it seems to me that a 1kHz sine wav at -15dBFS= +4dBM does this sound right?

my RME ADI DS converters seem to be about the same when set to lo gain in hi gain out

also I have a trident 24 and cant seem to find a way to fudge the masterlink outputs to read right( they always read -6dB ) when plugged into the stereo returns, which are unbalanced on this sucker

any hope?

 

[Light]

Dude, that's what assistants are for!!!!

Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

does anyone know about where 0VU of +4dbM ( I think its dBM ???) is on an alesis masterlink?

it seems to me that a 1kHz sine wav at -15dBFS= +4dBM does this sound right?

it's +4dbu... but anyways...

0db on the meters DOES correspond to -15 dbFS on the Masterlink.......

also I have a trident 24 and cant seem to find a way to fudge the masterlink outputs to read right( they always read -6dB ) when plugged into the stereo returns, which are unbalanced on this sucker

any hope?

The unbalanced signals from the Masterlink are going to read 6db lower (that's the loss incurred by unbalancing a balanced signal)....

What I did on mine was use the balanced outputs (which run very hot once you tweak levels on a mix!) with a RadioLabs level attenuator, so that levels of tweaked mixes don't send the VU Meters off the deep end...

I simply live with the level difference....

Actually, for the new incarnation of Blue Bear Sound, I intend to pickup one of those Furman SRM-80 units.... will help these kinds of issues!

 

[pipelineaudio]

dBM=dBU theyre both referenced to .775V right? damn old tape recorder manuals! dBu it is

ok the trident is +4 in but unbalanced, and the masterlink outs seem to be electronic ground reference balanced so theres no tieng a leg on or dropping a pin without loosing 6dB, is there a way to make them ground compensated balanced?

I actually have an SRM 80 but its kinda weird to use that as it puts another couple opamps in the way, but maybe thats what I better look at