Audio level question.

Hi everyone.

Let's say I record some audio, in this case it is just the slate tone from a Sound Devices mixer/recorder. The slate tone registers at 0dB on the mixer as expected.

If I bring that audio of the slate tone into FCP X, it shows up on the meters as something like -25dB. Is this right?

The reason I ask, is that it seems that the audio I've been recording has all the proper levels on my mixer/recorder, but I've found that once in FCP X, the levels seem to drop a bit, and I usually bump up the levels a bit to compensate.

I'll betcha BenB knows a little sumpin'

Jonathan

Exactly what mixer/recorder are you using? Which scale is it measuring? Digital or analog? If digital, dbs or dbfs? Yeah, that's all I can thing of, the tech stuff. But knowing the specific hardware helps us a lot.

Hi Ben,

And thanks. I'm using a Sound Devices 633. Looking at the manual I have it set to the default meter balistic which is peak and VU, which they say is how human hearing is perceived(?) The meter measuring range doesn't match what FCP X uses.

Don't use VU, that's based on analog, which is a different scale than digital. Avoid peak meters, you want full digital db matters. FCPX shows peaks, but isn't a peak based meter, nor a VU based meter. Doesn't matter if the meter shows you what you hear or not, you should be monitoring with good pro quality, noise canceling headphones, and you'll know what you hear and don't. You just don't want to hit red in a regular dbfs or db meter.