Posted by: "Lou Judson"
>
> Understood, if you mean 0 dBFS - I was thinking 0 VU...
Well, it's 0dBFS on the portadisc anyway. How that relates to some other
0dBFS I don't really know, it is very close to what my sound software
calls 0dB. Just a little rant, it would sure have been nice if there
were less terms and scales involved in all this. I know how it all came
about, but that does not make the jumble any nicer.
> I love the peak/average metering on the Sound Devices 7xx series. Seems
> to catch those short spikes.
Have not had the pleasure of recording with one. It would be interesting
to feed it something like the cricket frogs and see how it did. The
metering on the SD MP2 is definitely less helpful than the portadisc for
me, however. As the transients get shorter the LED's often hardly
flicker. Maybe I just prefer a continuous gauge, even if it's a LCD
display with it's own problems.
On the flip side the limiter of the SD MP2 is pretty good. So if you get
the gain set wrong all may still not be lost.
You can switch the display on the portadisc to one that continuously
displays what your instantaneous headroom is in dB. I don't use it much,
but some might find it useful.
I know in my reading I've come across where different software (which is
what it is these days) would count a certain number of overs and then
warn you. And each programmer had his own idea about how many to count.
Even a peak reading may be just a short running average. Just to make it
confusing. We are at the mercy of programmers who may or may not be
recordists.
It really boils down to you need to study the equipment you use and make
sure you understand what it's telling you. Just remember each time you
change equipment you have to do that over again. I don't mess up too
often anymore because I'm very used to what I use. I know the errors it
makes.
Walt
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