setting up a basic montior system for mixing

JHendrix wrote on 2/22/2012, 8:33 AM

so all i have at the moment is a small pair of Roland Speakers hooked up to the audio minijack on my macpro (in bootcamp windows 7)

the peaks on my master fader in vegas are around -10dB but the sound is super loud.

i have the Roland volume at about 1/4 up on the dial. I usually like to keep the monitor volume knob at half but in this case at half its way too loud.

where is the best place to trim the volume/output to get a real world reference + maintain the best quality ?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/22/2012, 9:00 AM

As long as the volume coming out of the PC isn't overloading and distorting the input of the Roland Amps, what's the problem? Turn down the volume on the speakers and be done with it.

JHendrix wrote on 2/22/2012, 9:15 AM

they are (cheap) Roland Speakers not amp. this i9s a temp system because my audio gear is in storage right now.

as far as i know in a perfect system -10 on the master fader should be -10 at the reference monitor when the monitor is set at 50% volume.

i may have that wrong but thats what I am getting at.

this is just a realtec soundcard.

rraud wrote on 2/22/2012, 9:48 AM

Like Chein stated "if it isn't overloading and distorting the input, what's the problem, just turn down the speakers"
If you really want to turn down the input to the speakers, do it within the soundcard. (Volume for instance) That way when you render a mix, it will be at your optimal level.

"-10 on the master fader should be -10 at the reference monitor when the monitor is set at 50% volume"
> Internal levels (Full Scale, VU, PPM or whatever) and electrical output levels (dBm or dBu for instance) are different measurements.

JHendrix wrote on 2/22/2012, 10:14 AM

so are you saying turn the soundcard down affects the render?

rraud wrote on 2/23/2012, 11:53 AM

The sound card's output Volume, (usually located in your computer's system tray, bottom right speaker icon) DOES NOT affect the level of a file being rendered.

Chienworks wrote on 2/23/2012, 3:50 PM

"-10 at the reference monitor when the monitor is set at 50% volume."

I'm not sure that actually makes sense. dB measurement is always relative to some set level. Since there's no correspondence between the output from the application and the amplification after it the sound level of the speaker would be rated in sound pressure coming out of the speakers. -10dB coming out of a speaker would be about only 1/10th as loud as near total silence.

Now, if you were to calibrate your source, amps, and speakers to say that a 0dB scale of the source equals XdB sound pressure from the monitors then you would expect that turning the source down 10dB would reduce the monitors to X-10dB. And ... this calibration is done by using the gain or volume control on the amp. In your case, the amp is your sound card.

JHendrix wrote on 2/23/2012, 4:22 PM

thanks for clearing that up! i got mixed up for a minute (or two!!)