Recording levels, Decibel, & Gain Stage 

Finally someone who knows what he talking about. We need a part 2 !!

It’s refreshing to hear someone who actually understands what they’re saying talk about this stuff. There are a lot of people out there educating who don’t seem to really understand what they’re saying, but they say it with confidence. Great channel! Looking forward to watching your older videos as well.

Bro, you killed that explanation!!! I almost gave up on trying to grasp this concept. Thanks so much!!!

Excellent, useful video, clear presentation, thank you! A little correction at 29:17 ; -10 dBv = 0,316 V

That was the absolute best explanation of the subject I have ever heard, fantastic!

We need a part 2 to this and show us how to calibrate our home gear and set them up as well pls

I’m a beginner/novice music recorder. I’ve read some on this subject. After 4 minutes of this video you have pulled together so much of the overly technical articles I’ve wasted massive time reading. Thank you!

this is the most important video i ever found on the basics of metering! thanks for sharing your knowledge hope you share more content on this channel!

Thank you so much for all your effort in planning, preparing, recording, and publishing your material to fulfil the needs of people who are currently in a position you found yourself in once upon a time; and to fundamentally give value. In just over 10 minutes, you’ve collated more than all the RU-vid videos and reading I’ve done in the past 2 years put together. You have a succinct, concise, and eloquent way of explaining and teaching. Your skill in teaching is truly a gem, and your material is invaluable. Allah bless you. Subscribed, saved, and looking forward to more invaluable material. Hope you are safe and well. P.S. Thank you for not adding any background music to your videos. It really helps in focusing on the information you’re disseminating, rather than being distracted by some groovy chord progression.

I never found that kind of precision, and clarity in any of the good videos I watched about gain staging. You even explained, things that I didn't know I needed. Many times I went " Woah that is how it works, ok now it makes sense ! ". I gladly would have put 3 more thumbs up, every time I was enlightened . It was like being at a professionnal school, and really learning how things work. You made complicated concepts, easy to understand. You are a great teacher. I have bookmarked this video, and will watch it many times again, like when you go back to your valuable lessons, as The reference. Congratulations, Bravo ! Braviiissimo !

Wow amazing. Thanks a lot. I think finally u start to understand the most important parts of it☺️

I’m 5 minutes in and I can already tell this is the video I’ve been looking for since I started taking mixing more seriously. Just running through the fundamentals w no bullshit. Thank you so much :)

Holy cow. Finally! Someone who knows what the hell they're talking about. I've watched two hours worth of videos about "proper record levels" and every one of them believe recording around the -6 (on their digital meters) to be the "right spot". You're saying (and I believe) that -18 is the sweet spot. I do voice over and record professionally daily and my "digital zero" is -18. People always tell me I'm recording too low until I playback for them and they say "Wow, that's really clean!". You're the ONLY person I've found on YT who seems to know precisely what the true story is on audio recording. Thanks for your talent and information. By the way, when you played the song that "seemed too low", it played back perfectly on my equipment here. Levels were just perfect. I wish I could have lunch with you and "talk shop". I think I'd learn a lot! Thanks again!

Thank you for demystifying these concepts by starting at the beginning and building up from there. You made no assumptions and kept re-affirming how each scale was related to one another. Hands down the most tutorial on metering and I’ve watched many! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Thank you for taking time and helping all of us out there. Really appreciate.

Wow. What a fabulous teacher. A master of knowledge and the ability to teach it clearly, building step by step.

Matteo you're great man! I got everything in this lesson in! Thx!

Amazing, super clear! Thank you

Sei un grande, dopo mille video ho trovato uno che ha spiegato bene questa cosa...numero1

Thanks for an amazing video. Very genuine Audio Engg. Description. This is the core of Audio. Thank you 🙏

In 33 minutes you've eloquently provided more insight and value than my college did. I've figured this stuff out on my own but it took a lot of trial, error and self discovery through research. I'm glad you mentioned Bob Katz and the K system. That changed my whole approach. What should be mentioned here as well, even if only in passing, is how to set up your monitoring system. Without that, record and mix levels won't be properly perceived. Only until you properly calibrate both your monitoring system and your record/mix levels will you be able to achieve the results you're aspiring to. Once you calibrate you can actually just use your ears and the levels all fall into place naturally. Thank you for the great video.

This is the video I have been searching for. It answered all my questions on metering. Thank you very much sir.

Wonderful. This is the answer to the question of dB and everything is explained. Hopefully i can now get my captured sound out to video mix with the legal values. Having just loop calibrated my field recorder and being used to tape i was lost with the digital stuff. Levels everywhere. Many thanks!

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you.

Good stuff. Useful. Thanks for taking the time.

Finally! Thank you so much! Keep it up please!:)

Very educative..Thanks alot!

Thank u so much for this lessons, the game changing for me was the calibration of home studio devices

Enjoyed the explanation. I would have really enjoyed some audio examples.

Thank you for in-depth explanation 🙏 The only question I have is about conversion from +4dbu to -18dbfs. I heard before that this values can’t be directly compared. The headroom is good for sure, it will save you from the mistake for the most of the time. But it’s not technically correct way to reconcile the levels. I would find the level of analog clipping and fit it to 0dbfs. In the scenarios where you don’t want any distortion in your sound it may give better representation and more dynamic range.

Excellent !

Great video! Thanks dude!

great lesson, you helped me in my project on sound engineering Thanks!

excellent video - intelligent, organized, articulate, nice production values, presentation style.

Great and through explanations of important information. Thanks.

wow! me encantó toda la explicación!!!!

This was a fantastic presentation. If you want Pro Tools meters to act just like an analog VU meter, switch the meter settings to "Venue RMS". Then gain stage your recordings or input to around 0 on the meters just like a real VU.

The Best ever Video related to the topic, I have seen many Videos on the Topic but here I the Relations between the Scales and everything has been explained So Logical and Properly, THANK YOU VERY VERY VERY MUCH.

Excellent and very clear information regarding metering, thank you Matteo.

Thanks dude!

Thank you!

you are a gem of a teacher Sir.. God bless you.. Best wishes from India.🙏

Thank you sir. This is invaluable information. Please keep posting educational videos like this one.

articulate and intelligent presentation - well done

Excellent and clear tutorial! Thank you!

Finally a great guide to metering. Thanks for the video.

So I started noticing that in some RU-vid video the volume is low and when the commercials come on the volume is boosted. That has me here. I figured that if I could learn how to control the audio it’ll make my recordings better too

nice explained..thks

Very good discussion and explanation of dB versions. I've always liked using Vu metering from the analog days. I still use plug-in Vu meters on my DAW, along with the K system.

very well described 🙂

Loved this.

Amazing, thank you

Thank you ever so much for the extensive and very elaborate tutorial on loudness in metering. I am most impressed with this video. I appreciate the effort, the amount of time consumed and resources to put all of this together. This is a very high value material.

Thank you very much

This truly helped me thnx🙏

Great work Sir..............

Great content!

Exellent my friend.

Thank you

This information is so helpful

Subbed. Great video!

Ottimo Video , spiegato molto bene. Bravo! Great!

great video, but there are some parts honestly I don't understand, you said home equipment is calibrated at -16 dBFS to -10 dBv equal to 0.136v How can it be that being -16dBFS wich is louder than -18dBFS (as you later explained in the example of opening sesions in HD rig or home studio) results in a lower voltage. I found in converter pages than -10dBv is -7,78 dBu that is 0,316 volts but is far lower than 1,228v. I know there isn't a direct conversion for dBu to dBFS but I guess some relationship is there. That's my only doubt, for the rest excellent video, very clear and well explained, thanks for sharing with us.

This dude can tell it in a good way!

Thanks a lot for this! Greetings from puerto rico

awesome

Very good presentation which help for recordist and audio technicians.

Underrated proffesional keep doing bro good work

very very good production values ----

Merci Again !

Wish all artists could see this 🙏🏽🔥

Gran video hermano, gracias por compartir tus conocimientos🐓⚡

Amazing video!!

Thank U

Well said, I learned alot from this 33mins. Now I have the ability to go back and make those sudden changes..thank you..

Good looking

Grazie, questa é una lezione utilissima!! Stasera, nonostante iil mio inglese povero, me la riguardo tutta!

Great video. I learned a lot by watching this. I was wondering if there is a way to calibrate the home-interfaces that some of use? Is it relatively easy to do, or does it require some expense? I'm referring to bringing up the decibel level of -16 to -18. Thanks.

Thank you for this eye opener.? Should the final Master also be at - 18 also.

People worry too much abut this, it was only a real issue with tape recording. Nowadays, just dont clip n the way in, and keep it as far possible from the noise floor. Simple

Very interesting points about calibration. How then, would I measure the calibration of my digital interface and preamp, AD/DA converter, and analogue preamps? Further, how would I calibrate each one to +4 dBu?

Great explanation! just one little thing, 29:18 nominal value for consumer /semi-professional/ devices is -10dBV=0.316vRMS (at 0dBV=1vRMS). I thing it is just misstyping 0.316 -> 0.136 , also dbV - dBv. dBv is obsolete measurement metod describes voltage values just like the dBu, but maybe i didn't see somethng.

LOL You appropriated the Silicon Graphics Logo lol

@30:50 - What if both the systems use a common VU ProTools metering to gain chain and record the same performance ? Would we still end up with the level differences ?

Those 2 dBs of difference between pro and consumer converters would be at the DAC stage right? also... I read that "alignment signal" acording to ITU is a 1kHz sine tone at 0dBu (0.773 volts rms... which peaks at around 1.1 volts). When and why +4dBu was implemented as the "standard" 0 VU?

Great information cleared my dought.. Plz let us know from your side which is the best Analouge mixing or digital mixing qualitywise...?

Excellent. Well presented, clear, concise, and thoughtfully broken down into digestible sections. Do you want a job? 🙂

damn its work

when he pulled out the scarlett it felt like home

Thanks for the video ... would be great if you actually showed step by step how calibrate the system. A practical guide how to actually do what you are talking about!

Great video, thanks. A few quick questions: 1) 20:20 Can I ask when you mentioned this song was mixed properly at -18 dBFS, do you mean the average dBFS level or the peak level? 2) 22:22 How come a song with a level of -18 dBFS is way lower than the 0 dBVU level of the VU meter here? 3) 22:24 I can see the signal is around -7 dBVU, so is it not an optimal level to be fed into an analog modelled plugin like an SSL compressor? Thanks.

I subscribed when you reminded +4dbu is an average level, not a peak level! So yo need to record in your DAW with an average meter like an LUFS one!

When I'm calibrating the HDIO by Avid singnal generator plugin, There is a PEAK button and RMS button. Do I need to set the signal generator to Sine PEAK or RMS ? (there's no precision in the manual)

can i run my mic in a mono auv input and add a compressor would it work

Great video. So should the audio signal be “peaking” at -18db or rms average at -18db?

So my Fx Loop Send from my amplifier should be recorded at -18.0RMS? Cos I use MVMeter2, and it peaks above 0 but below +3 in standard mode, but with other 'meters' it doesn't peak. I'm so lost, please help!!!

hey mate, What is the difference between Period and Wavelength??? (at 1:54)

EXCELLENT EXPLANATION!! many thanks from Italy 🙂

❤❤❤❤❤🥰😅i hav studiolive 32 s and studio one

Can U Provide Mixing with VU meter as desired dBu and mastering of complete tut. i'm confused from mixing to mastering. could you give a solution to me sir? I'm eagerly waiting for your reply....