what db level should i normalize to?

A

a27thletter

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after i have my mix ready to go onto a cd what db level should i normalize it to? in the earlier versions of audition it said that you shouldnt normalize to 100% because some cd players wont read it. i'm using adobe audition 2.0 now, and i'm working on a demo album and so far i have my songs normalized to -.2db.. is this alright? should i go lower? or is it ok to go ahead and normalize to 00db? upon investigation i noticed that john mayers new album continuum seems to be normalized to about -.5db, and later today i may look at a few other albums for reference.

thanks for any advice in advance.

~barry turner
 
I've just been leaving the final limiter set -.3 for that bit of safety room, but come to think of it, I don't know if there's a minimum. Presumably it's anything that covers the discrepancy- not much.
 
CD players will not stop playing, but distort at intersample overs. That's all, and it is hardly noticable if it happens just a few times. Excessive hot CD's (see my signature) are a different story.

The worst case scenario would be alternating positive and negative 0 dB each sample and have the pattern inversed inbetween. Here is a picture of that case (in 44100 Hz):
intersamplepeakhz6.png

You can see the interpolating line in close zoom. Now I did a sample rate convertion to float at 1Mhz. This conversion is quite accurate in Audition and see where it peaks. 9.85 dB:
convertedpeaktu5.png


It would be insane to have that much safety headroom. So unless you'll get an interpolating limiter, settling just slightly under 0 dB is the best you can do.
 
I always make my highest peak no higher than -0.5db. Probably unnecessary headroom, but I just feel better about doing it that way.
 
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