On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 2:30 PM, Brent Busby <brent@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > So, I could mix to -6db in Ardour and still use most of the headroom on > a CD? Is there any advantage to keeping your peak level that low on the > master in the digital world? Or, put another way, if I *could* get the > whole track to behave itself and not go above -1db at loudest peak, is > there a reason not to? Throughout the digital signal flow (JACK, JACK clients) assuming a "somewhat" normal signal level, there is no perceivable degradation of the signal. Traditionally degradation of sound was caused by lack of bits to represent sound: signal-noise-ratio is proportional to number of bits used. Floating point removes this cause of degradation. Soundcards play integer streams: not floating point, so the floating-point samples are converted to integers. During DAC stage the number of bits used is important: so a very low signal level will use less bits, causing a worse SNR (signal-noise-ratio). In short: mix with enough headroom in Ardour, ensure that the master-output level in Ardour is happy - ideally somewhere between -20 and -6dB. When that signal arrives at the DAC, it will not significantly impact on SNR. Then use an analog volume fader to change the speaker-volume. Do *not* do this: -Good Ardour, analog dials on speakers turned up to max, and digitally (Ardour master fader) regulate the volume (eg -60dB through DAC causes much larger SNR). Hope that helps, -Harry -- http://www.openavproductions.com _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
