What is the purpose of a 1khz reference tone and how do you use it?
- Thread starter Marc2109
- Start date
Steenamaroo
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Are you talking about analog tape recordings, Marc?
People used to do a test tone lead in on tape recordings if they were to be transferred between machines.
The idea was that you could calibrate your machine to the test tone to be sure that the recording plays back as intended.
For example, you'd put test tones at the beginning of a tape that you're planning to send to a mastering house.
People used to do a test tone lead in on tape recordings if they were to be transferred between machines.
The idea was that you could calibrate your machine to the test tone to be sure that the recording plays back as intended.
For example, you'd put test tones at the beginning of a tape that you're planning to send to a mastering house.
Thanks for the reply again sir. No, I mean it in reference to calibrating your monitoring/recording setup in a DAW. I don't really get what the purpose is. I read an article here about recording and using one recorded at -6db through your D/A converters used to monitor the mix. Something about 85db and a C weight. It goes on to talk about comparing your two speakers, and using it to test your cabling.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
Well....you neeed some kind of tone/sound to use as a signal....right?
1 kHz just happens to be the tone audio adopted as a reference....so you could say, "0 dB VU was calibratet using a 1 kHz tone at +4dBm reference level."
Other frequencies can and do get used also as reference tones....but 1 kHz is the one used most often in a variety of audio applications.
1 kHz just happens to be the tone audio adopted as a reference....so you could say, "0 dB VU was calibratet using a 1 kHz tone at +4dBm reference level."
Other frequencies can and do get used also as reference tones....but 1 kHz is the one used most often in a variety of audio applications.
Steenamaroo
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Ah, ok.
I'm sure one of the mastering guys in here will be all over this but here's an apogee guide in the meanwhile.
Take line level gear as an example. There are two common operating levels.
If you mismatch equipment, the source will either be too quiet for the destination or will overload the destination.
Many pieces of equipment will have a -10/+4 calibration switch to match equipment.
I guess the kind of calibration you're talking about is a variable and much more precise version of this.
What kind of gear are you dealing with? Most consumer stuff won't be adjustable on that level, AFAIK.
I'm sure one of the mastering guys in here will be all over this but here's an apogee guide in the meanwhile.
Take line level gear as an example. There are two common operating levels.
If you mismatch equipment, the source will either be too quiet for the destination or will overload the destination.
Many pieces of equipment will have a -10/+4 calibration switch to match equipment.
I guess the kind of calibration you're talking about is a variable and much more precise version of this.
What kind of gear are you dealing with? Most consumer stuff won't be adjustable on that level, AFAIK.
I'm using Cakewalk Sonar, am M-audio Fast Track Ultra interface, and Rokkit 5 monitors. So you are saying this process might not be necessary for me?
Steenamaroo
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I'm not aware of anything that you can calibrate with that setup.
I guess the most common point to calibrate would be the I/O to and from converters.
As these are built in to your interface, I don't imagine anything's adjustable.
There's probably an optimum volume level to set your monitors at since there's more than one volume control in the output path, but I'm not convinced it's going to rock your world.
I guess the most common point to calibrate would be the I/O to and from converters.
As these are built in to your interface, I don't imagine anything's adjustable.
There's probably an optimum volume level to set your monitors at since there's more than one volume control in the output path, but I'm not convinced it's going to rock your world.
Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
I'm a big fan of having a properly calibrated monitoring chain no matter what. Almost no matter what reference level you use for that matter as long as it's consistent.
That said, you'd use pink noise (probably at -20dBFS), not a 1kHz tone (which is handy for calibrating almost anything else).
More here if you're bored: Calibrating Your Monitoring Chain | Articles
That said, you'd use pink noise (probably at -20dBFS), not a 1kHz tone (which is handy for calibrating almost anything else).
More here if you're bored: Calibrating Your Monitoring Chain | Articles
Crasher4158
New member
The reason they use 1khz is because 1khz is in the middle of the range of the human voice (100Hz-3Khz) and at 1Khz the power is at max and doesn't roll off dramatically like it does at higher frequencies. So its kind of misleading...
JamEZmusic
Active member
I only ever use it on my field mixer into camera. the 1khz test tone is set to output at -18 so if the field mixer is outputting -18 and the camera is only recieving -23 then we turn it up on the camera so it matches at -18. It's just for calibration, I've never used it for anything else.
It can output at -18, -6, -12 whatever, as long as the camera matches it then we're good.
It is very useful for that
It can output at -18, -6, -12 whatever, as long as the camera matches it then we're good.
It is very useful for that
RIAA equalization - Wikipedia
That ^ was probably one reason 1kHz was chosen as a reference. You can see that the 'cutting' / replay EQ curves pivots about 1kHz.
Then, back in the day when all we had was valves and transformers to amplify signals, one k was 'easy', below about 100Hz transformers start to droop and get more distorted and above 10kHz the higher impedance of valve circuits and cable capacitances began to lose you signal.
1000Hz is not all embracing however. The start of tape recording and especially cassettes meant the 'pivot point' of the EQ curve was moved down to 300Hz iirc because 1kHz was already 'on the slope'.
Modern solid state electronics is pretty well 'aperiodic'. Op amps can deliver any frequency you like from DC to the limit of their gain bandwidth product. NOW that is! The humble 741 op amp will start to droop at 10kHz or so if you want 20dB of gain. Note however that the 741 is the only chip around that is limited in that way. The ubiquitous NE5532 is about the slowest but is still 2 or 4 times faster than it needs to be for audio purposes.
Dave.
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