Author Topic: Why is mixing in -dbs?  (Read 9619 times)

Anuma

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Why is mixing in -dbs?
« on: January 11, 2016, 02:31:39 pm »
This is probably the newbiest shit ever, but something I haven't really considered before. Why is it that in a mix everything is recorded in -dbs? I've always just taken it for granted and not really thought about it until now, so what's the actual reason behind this?

Ferio

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Re: Why is mixing in -dbs?
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2016, 02:44:07 pm »
This is probably the newbiest shit ever, but something I haven't really considered before. Why is it that in a mix everything is recorded in -dbs? I've always just taken it for granted and not really thought about it until now, so what's the actual reason behind this?

There's a lot of write about this. Google "producing headroom" in google and you'll find a lot of articles.

Usually I sit around -8 to -10 and take the loudest part, which is the kick and build the rest around it.

Such as; http://blog.landr.com/7-tricks-to-create-headroom-and-how-it-will-save-your/
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 02:48:59 pm by Ferio »

Memz

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Re: Why is mixing in -dbs?
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2016, 02:46:02 pm »
tl;dr: a DAW has no way of representing a signal that goes higher than 0dB, thus creating distortion

FarleyCZ

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Re: Why is mixing in -dbs?
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2016, 03:10:52 pm »
I believe the logical reason is this:
When you make a track, you have no idea about how loud it will be played back by the listener. But you need some kind of relative measure, so they came up with this idea to take a maximum amplitude for the signal distribution (+- 1 volt I think, 16/24/32 bits digitally), name it 0db and base every measuremet out of it. (Thus logically you go down.) That maximum is in the end controlled by a listener's volume knob. (When he sets the volume to 100db, your -5db peaking track will be 95db loud in reality.)
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Kenny Troy

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Re: Why is mixing in -dbs?
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2016, 05:16:43 pm »
This may help you understand the differences between each measurement.

I'll include the link to the forum thread if you want to read other responses too, but the picture below is pretty solid
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/newbie-audio-engineering-production-question-zone/915206-understanding-dbv-db-dbfs-dbspl.html


MifzanHerawan

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Re: Why is mixing in -dbs?
« Reply #5 on: January 12, 2016, 04:42:42 am »
tl;dr: a DAW has no way of representing a signal that goes higher than 0dB, thus creating distortion

yeah basically that. you dont really need to know that much, basically 0db is the maximum db
and any volume that's not filled below 0db is called headroom

:D

Schematic

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Re: Why is mixing in -dbs?
« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2016, 08:38:37 pm »
Yeah the simple answer is just that the digital scale has a maximum value of 0dBFS, so everything you do will have a negative value.

Has nothing to do with mixing in particular, but to do with the format (and so which dB scale is being referenced, because there are a number of them for different situations). If you were mixing in analogue (i.e. dBu, dBm, or dBv scales) you would still see negative values but you would also have positive values too.
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Dichotomy

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Re: Why is mixing in -dbs?
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2016, 03:43:35 am »
Are you asking why about the unit "dB" and why sound is measured with it, and the difference between dBFS & dB SPL? - Decibel - Wikipedia

or...

Are you asking why there's a negative sign by the number specifically in the context of digital audio?
This post is very easy to follow: Sound Design - stackexchange: What is 0 dB in digital audio?
« Last Edit: January 14, 2016, 03:45:06 am by Dichotomy »