CD volume level?

[Champagne]

I leave individual channels at 12-18db below 0dbfs, but the 2buss will usually end up around -6dbfs at the peaks. This is a common standard that mastering engineers request when you send them mixes. It's also what Izotope recommends for it's Ozone5 software.

Ahhh so you are talking about PEAKING to -6, not 6db of dynamic range. Got it!

 

[silky smoove]

Since most meters built into DAW's only report peak values, specifying -6dbfs is a pretty safe way to go. Your RMS value will obviously be lower than that, but in most cases, maybe all cases, unless you use a specific RMS metering plugin like the TT Dynamic Range Meter, or Izotope Ozone5, etc., using a peak reference is your best bet.

 

[Champagne]

After years of monitoring peak meters, you will be able to see the rms levels

 

[maxiegrant]

Normalization and Dynamic compression
The best way is to put your fingers on the masters while listening to the final mix. Keep it just kissing the red. You got 16 bits, use them, but use them tasteful

This is so much wrong I don't know where to start.

#1, you are always using 16 bits. Those bits are not sequential, and do not describe 16 different levels for the volume -- they describe 65,355 levels. Using your entire meter doesn't mean your sound has greater dynamic fidelity and in fact means the opposite.

--------extra special note from me: I am an IT consultant with 18 years' experience and a programmer. I am not guessing about this. EVERY SINGLE sample of your waveform is a value between 1 and 65,355 (or -32,000 and +32,000 if you are using signed integers). You are NOT going to get "more bits" by turning your volume up. You will still have 16 of them, and all of the values will be used for something.

#2, "kissing the red" is not what you are after. One thing I don't see people much make note of is that compressors and limiters have two functions, one of which is to knock down the peaks, the other is to bring UP the valleys. You're far better served figuring out what sounds you want to "auto make-up" or whatever your plugin does, and bring those up to the level of your recording.

If you aren't sure about this, and you have say Reaper, put the compressor on a track, and then turn on "auto make-up" or use one of the limiters that has a floor as well as a ceiling. This has a big impact on sounds and doesn't clip your meters, which is always, always, always a bad idea.

 

[Champagne]

This is so much wrong I don't know where to start.

I feel your pain. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way to truly understand. I know I did and sometimes still do, but is is far more blue moonish then when I first got into engineering.

 

[Troph]

I feel your pain. Sometimes people have to learn the hard way to truly understand. I know I did and sometimes still do, but is is far more blue moonish then when I first got into engineering.

You have to expect some of this considering how affordable recording interfaces and computers are today. The amount of technology available to someone with a $1000 budget is astonishing. In the 1980s these same people would have purchased a 4-track Tascam cassette unit, which had all of about 20 buttons on the thing. Now there is an endless variety of DSPs and effects, automated parameter envelopes, all within a click away. Overwhelming but irresistible to the hobbyist. Amazing!