Heads up! (Question relating to headroom) -ACID Product Family

Subject:Heads up! (Question relating to headroom) Posted by: epinema Date:11/6/2012 9:51:50 PM Not quite sure how Acid Pro 7 handles headroom but is it ok for my channels to hit the read a little as long as the master channel doesn't go above 0 and not cause clipping on the rendered file?
Subject:RE: Heads up! (Question relating to headroom) Reply by: Vocalpoint Date:11/7/2012 1:49:33 PM I never allow any "red" on any DAW mix. -3dbFS would be my max for any mixes (and that would be for a transient like a snare hit etc). I purposely leave a bunch of headroom for any mastering phase later. If you are consistency flashing the red on the master bus while still in the DAW environment (like ACID) - your track is already on it's way to clipping and other problems... VP
Subject:RE: Heads up! (Question relating to headroom) Reply by: FTech Date:11/7/2012 3:35:34 PM Hi epinema, I've tried out an experiment. You clip a track above 0db and lowered the master channel to offset the clipping to see if the rendered file exhibit any distortion. I used a 1khz sine wave set at -3db created in Sound Forge. Loaded the 1khz sine wave as a one-shot into Acid Pro 7. Maxed out the track volume slider. When you play the sine wave you can clearly hear the distortion. Lowered the master volume to where levels read -3db. Rendered this file and loaded it back into Acid as a one-shot. Now I have two sine waves loaded. Make sure both tracks are set to the same track level. In my case, I set both to -6db. Play both files and press the "invert track phase" button. I hear... silence. This tells me the rendered sine wave is exactly the same as the original. To make sure my ears didn't deceive me, I opened up Sound Forge to see if the waveform had any clipping. All I see is a nice smooth sine wave. No indication of distortion what so ever. There ya go, if track channels go above 0db but adjust the master channel to off-set the clipping... there will not be any distortion on the rendered file. FTech

Subject:Heads up! (Question relating to headroom)

Posted by: epinema

Date:11/6/2012 9:51:50 PM

Not quite sure how Acid Pro 7 handles headroom but is it ok for my channels to hit the read a little as long as the master channel doesn't go above 0 and not cause clipping on the rendered file?

Subject:RE: Heads up! (Question relating to headroom)

Reply by: Vocalpoint

Date:11/7/2012 1:49:33 PM

I never allow any "red" on any DAW mix. -3dbFS would be my max for any mixes (and that would be for a transient like a snare hit etc).

I purposely leave a bunch of headroom for any mastering phase later.

If you are consistency flashing the red on the master bus while still in the DAW environment (like ACID) - your track is already on it's way to clipping and other problems...

VP

Subject:RE: Heads up! (Question relating to headroom)

Reply by: FTech

Date:11/7/2012 3:35:34 PM

Hi epinema,

I've tried out an experiment. You clip a track above 0db and lowered the master channel to offset the clipping to see if the rendered file exhibit any distortion. I used a 1khz sine wave set at -3db created in Sound Forge.

Loaded the 1khz sine wave as a one-shot into Acid Pro 7. Maxed out the track volume slider. When you play the sine wave you can clearly hear the distortion. Lowered the master volume to where levels read -3db. Rendered this file and loaded it back into Acid as a one-shot. Now I have two sine waves loaded. Make sure both tracks are set to the same track level. In my case, I set both to -6db. Play both files and press the "invert track phase" button. I hear... silence. This tells me the rendered sine wave is exactly the same as the original.

To make sure my ears didn't deceive me, I opened up Sound Forge to see if the waveform had any clipping. All I see is a nice smooth sine wave. No indication of distortion what so ever.

There ya go, if track channels go above 0db but adjust the master channel to off-set the clipping... there will not be any distortion on the rendered file.

FTech