
SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
I've been researching the whole gain staging thing in an attempt to document it a bit better for the rookies to this racket, and frankly there's a bit of "common wisdom" that's passed around by most of the veterans here (I have been guilty of it myself) to which I can find no evidence to support; that a de facto standard for conversion from dBu to dBFS is +4dBu (0VU) to -18dBFS, though that calibration can vary from device to device.
Frankly the only published standards (EBU/ISO, SMPTE) do not match this figure. Does anyone have any tips or links documenting where the -18dBFS spec comes from? Is it simply because manufacturers think that 18dB of crest factor is "better" or an easier sell than 16dB (the SMPTE standard) or 14dB (the EBU standard)? While I personally like the 18dB of headroom myself; it makes more sense to me to have more peak headroom, it is a rather arbitrary number as far as I can tell. Why not -20dBFS, for example? While there is gear that'l go that far, it seems to be the exception at the extreme, not the de facto standard that -18dBFS appears to have become.
Or is there actually a third official standard that I can't find that specifies -18dBFS?
Any standards buffs out there?
G.
Frankly the only published standards (EBU/ISO, SMPTE) do not match this figure. Does anyone have any tips or links documenting where the -18dBFS spec comes from? Is it simply because manufacturers think that 18dB of crest factor is "better" or an easier sell than 16dB (the SMPTE standard) or 14dB (the EBU standard)? While I personally like the 18dB of headroom myself; it makes more sense to me to have more peak headroom, it is a rather arbitrary number as far as I can tell. Why not -20dBFS, for example? While there is gear that'l go that far, it seems to be the exception at the extreme, not the de facto standard that -18dBFS appears to have become.
Or is there actually a third official standard that I can't find that specifies -18dBFS?
Any standards buffs out there?

G.