Hi,
I have the following issue.
I work at 96khz 24bit.
In my master chain there’s a limiter with true peak at -0,2db.
If I export the track and analyze it with wavelab the max peak level is confirmed to be at -0,2db.
If I export the track at 44,1khz the max peak can go up to 0.4 db.
How can I prevent this?
Thanks
You can lower the limiter ceiling closer to -1.0dBFS (a common thing). -0.2dB was the old unofficial standard for the CD days. You want to leave headroom for mp3/lossy ending as well down the line as that will also increase peak levels slightly.
You can insert another limiter in the “Final/Effects Dithering” slot of the master section.
I would suggest Tokyo Dawn Limiter 6 using just the final output section and set the ceiling to the same as your main limiter. It will only limit the peaks that rise from the SRC change which is good.
Of course, you want to dither after the SRC regardless of adding another limiter or not, so this is why the “Final/Effects Dithering” section exists, and after the Resampler section.
Maybe there is a built-in WaveLab plugin that handles true-peaks nicely but I really suggest Limiter 6 because you can use the “Delta Mode” to hear just the peaks that it catches to be sure that you’re doing very minimal adjustments and nothing major.
Agree with Justin. I would add the following.
It is normal to see subtle peak level changes after SRC.
To compensate, after SRC use a limiter to set the peak to the required level (-1dBFS true peak is a good choice) and dithering last of all (both in the Final Effects / Dithering section). The supplied Brickwall Limiter can be used for the limiting. For dithering you could use the supplied Izotope Mbit+ plugin (or your preferred dithering plugin).
Yes, this is even why the Master Section design has been set in this order:
effects, SRC, final (limiting + dithering).