Justin Perkins, of Pro Audio Files, likes to caution mastering engineers away from allowing peak levels to reach 0 DBFS. Beyond that, he feels that the commonly shared wisdom, suggesting peaks of -6, or – 3 db are being overly cautious and also harking back to a time period when sound equipment was quite primitive, relative to today's technology, when it made good sense to have a definite limit in place.
With today's far superior equipment, Perkins says he rarely gets overly excited about the peak levels, unless it gets to 0, or unless he's dealing with analogue equipment. He also advocates not using a limiter, or a plugin that prevents peaks that would otherwise reach or clio 0 dBFS.
Key Takeaways:
- Justin Perkins of Pro Audio Files admonishes mixing engineers not to let peak levels get to 0 dBFS.
- That also suggests that the oft-shared advice to keep peak levels at -6 or -3 dB are too arbitrary, harking back to a time when equipment ability was sub par.
- Perkins says, with today's superior equipment, he rarely worries about peak levels, unless the get to 0, or unless he is using analogue equipment.
“Not a week goes by where I see somebody on a forum or Facebook group asking about how much headroom to leave on a mix for the mastering engineer. Then comes the flood of varying responses”
Read more: https://theproaudiofiles.com/6-db-headroom-mastering-myth-explained/
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