Hi all,
I have calibrated my Studio Monitor System to k-20. When I Import an audio-file, e.g. from a CD, into a cubase Project, the resulting tracks are always extremely LOUD. Why is this?
Cheers, Ernst
They’ve been mastered. In MixConsole, Switch from k-20 to digital. What’s the level?
As I understand it the K-20 meter is intended for listening to a wide dynamic range material, e.g. cinema sound levels which go from whisper to explosion, and that’s generally not what you find on a commercial music mix which would probably be compressed and hard limited (mastered) to very close to 0dBFS (i.e. as loud as possible without clipping the digital numbers). Usually K-20 is used in the TV or film industry because it represents ‘a good’ level for listening to dialogue tracks in your studio, thus you can nicely judge how to mix in your widely dynamic music, and how (loud) it will sound in a cinema or on TV. So, in order for it to leave headroom for those loud explosions, on average a track conforming to this scale is quiet. Not that I work in this field, just info that I’ve gleaned over the years, correct me if I’m wrong… Modern CD and MP3 music doesn’t conform to this idea, mostly because there aren’t explosions or whispers present, and also because there’s a current trend to make it sound loud at the expense of dynamics. But this is essentially why your imported tracks are so loud in your monitors.
Mike.