System Noise Floor in the Context of Mix Printing

[stringbean01]

i'm running a hybrid mix rig (8 stems out of logic into the Folcrom, patchbay inline, some compressors, EQS, etc)

i'm curious... is there some kind of measured "normal" noise floor hiss in a system like this that i should be aware of? in general it seems quite good, with the very detailed Sonalksis "FreeG" plugin reading -77 dbfs peak or -88 RMS on a 24 bit print channel input. in playing around with a gain plugin before this readout, it seems that the FreeG plugin wont even read a signal under -100 dbfs.

should my noise floor be lower? how low can or should the quietest of noise floors be in an ultimately analog summing rig with outboard?

i've played around with patching and there doesn't seem to be any one piece causing more hiss than anything else.

thanks!

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[ruffrecords]

A noise floor -88dB nominal signal level (+4dBu) is quite good for an analogue system but it would normally have 20dB of headroom above that i.e the noise is effectively -108dBfs. The big question then is what level in dBu does 0dBfs in your digital domain equate to?

Cheers

Ian

[stringbean01]

i think i know what you mean... but a little unsure. are you asking me to measure the analog level of what a 0 dbfs tone is on my rig?

[ruffrecords]

Originally Posted by stringbean01

i think i know what you mean... but a little unsure. are you asking me to measure the analog level of what a 0 dbfs tone is on my rig?

That's right.

Cheers

ian