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Originally Posted by bob katz You mean your Ratshack meter tells you you are listening at 53 dB SPL? It must be broken. Human speech at 3 feet is about 74 dB SPL! I'm not saying you have to listen at 83..... it is the level approximately where the ear is most linear, and so your bass response will translate the best. But even as low as 6 dB lower and you will still be doing good work. My guess is your meter must be broken, you can't possibly be 20 dB down from this...
When you go into a THX movie theatre, and watch a normal (not effects) movie, does it sound too loud to you?
The Radio Shack meter's analog attenuator is notoriously inexact from range to range, but not by 20 dB, maybe as much as 3. See if you can borrow an accurate SPL meter from somone, set it to C weighted, slow, and I'll bet you're really working somewhere between 73 and 83 dBC. |
Thanks for taking the time Bob. Well, I got another SPL meter, and the first one was out a bit. Here's what I found though: put Donald Fagen on - RMS reads about 0 on K-20 (I'm using Inspector XL) but I want listen to him at a room reading of about 70dB or less. Having done my pink noise calibration. So I conclude that I would normally mix at between 60 and 68, with occasional excursions to 72/73 or so.
At the movies, the high points are always a bit loud!
I'll work at 70 for a while.....
Pete G