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Match peak levels of listing examples?
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 2:49 pm
by HogTime
Getting ready to submit a bluegrass instrumental. The listing examples have audio peaks of about -6dB. Should my submission be about that level? In the past I had my CD professionally mastered and the peaks are close to 0 dB.
Thanks,
Ralph
Re: Match peak levels of listing examples?
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 2:54 pm
by CTWF
HogTime wrote: ↑Tue May 09, 2023 2:49 pm
Getting ready to submit a bluegrass instrumental. The listing examples have audio peaks of about -6dB. Should my submission be about that level? In the past I had my CD professionally mastered and the peaks are close to 0 dB.
Thanks,
Ralph
Here is what an internationally successful German library wants:
As there will be no further mastering, all tracks should (1) have a maximum peak-level of -0.3 dB - NOT normalized to 0 dB to avoid “intersample overs” that cause clipping in D/A converters and in mp3 conversion. (2) All tracks should have an Loudness-Level of 12 LU/-11 LUFS or an RMS-level of -12 dB (equals a dynamic range of 12 dB) – of course classical music will have more quiet parts than e.g. house or rock music, so try to adjust the loudest parts of each track to -12 LU/dB RMS. All tracks (3) should have a balanced level of high, mid and low frequencies. (4) They should have 0,25 seconds of silence at the beginning (some D/A converters in CD players need some msecs to work properly) and 0,25 seconds of silence at the end. (5) All tracks should be checked for clippings, dropouts, “clicks”, “pops”, cut reverbs at the end and other errors. (6) All Tracks should be checked for mono compatibility / phase problems.
Re: Match peak levels of listing examples?
Posted: Tue May 09, 2023 5:31 pm
by HogTime
CTWF:
Thanks for the info. I'll use that as a roadmap.
Ralph
Re: Match peak levels of listing examples?
Posted: Tue May 23, 2023 12:16 am
by mojobone
I would match RMS levels, but pay attention to peaks and crest factor, which is the ratio of peak to average.