audio distortion problem

[Terry Mikkelsen]

What are the station’s requirements for audio levels? Maybe -12dBfs = 0dBVU? That maybe one problem. The other might be that there is distortion from previous processes (submixes or audio sweetening) that are now in the mix. They will not cause a clip light to come on because they have already been clipped. So the station is rejecting it because of sound quality not level measurements.

So, review the requirements and see that you have met them. After that, QC your tapes that were sent. If you still don’t have the answer, ask the station for clarification.

Tech-T Productions
http://www.technical-t.com

[Dan Newton]

Hey

Thanks for the feedback —

I think their requirement is Maybe -12dBfs = 0dBVU

but the thing is the sound — has no clips or anything it sounds perfect

so do you suggest I put the levels down to 8 or even less — please suggest this is worrying me and to clairfy this is the first time im doign this alone — so i want to get it right — i knwo the procedures but I jsut want to make sure I do it right

so what do I do

[Grinner Hester]

Your levels have to match your tone. It’s what it’s used for… so they can set up the tape.
You’re watching the levels as you master, right?
And you QC tapes before sending them out?

[Dino]

What tape format? Analog or digital have different rules.

Digital levels are all negative numbers that reach their maximum at 0. Dan, you keep mentioning “8”. What is this in reference to? If you mean -8, that still doesn’t in itself create distortion.

All my experience delivering for broadcast has -20 as the reference level (tone) with program peaks allowed up to -10.

A QC report will generally mention program level in relation to tone. A program could be rejected for having invalid tone or program to high or low in reference to tone or in reference to an absolute defined in the spec. Distortion is usually just that, distortion. Levels have nothing to do with it unless the distortion was created by mastering to the saturation point (or beyond) of the tape (in the digital world, 0).

Are there no timecodes listed for the instances of distortion? If the entirety of their comment was literally just “audio distortion”, I would ask for some detailed clarification. having a bunch of people on a forum guess, wont get you an answer.

[Grinner Hester]

Imported cd music has to be brought down -14 in Avidland, if that helps.
Not sure why they bring it in hot.

[Dino]

Bringing audio CD files into the Avid (or most any system for that matter) is simply a bit for bit transfer. CDs are just mastered that hot (loudest peak is generally set to hit the maximum possible).

Media composer now allows for volume adjustments as part of the import process.

[Grinner Hester]

ahh
I can see them adding that before a decient DVE. lol
I’m not at all surprised.