Audio Monitoring Upgrade Questions

[John Rofrano]

[John Griffin] ” One question for you, we talked about pink noise -20db, but you had a response to Kelly Griffin, in July 2011, about studio setup using a -20dB test tone at 400Hz. Can you educate me on the difference and why one over the other for calibration?”

The -20dB test tone at 400Hz is to get the levels correct in Vegas. It is an industry standard so that when you give your tape or file to someone else they can calibrate their equipment to the same level.

The -20dB Pick Noise to to get the levels right for your speakers. You’ll notice that the -20dB Pink Noise will fluctuate because Pink Noise is random noise containing all frequencies. It’s not good for calibrating Vegas because of the fluctuation. The -20dB 400Hz tone is constant. It should always read exactly -20dB.

So one is used to calibrate what’s coming out of Vegas (single frequency test tone) and the other is used to calibrate what’s coming out of your speakers (all frequencies pink noise).

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Griffin]

John,

Thanks for all your help on this. I’m sure I will have questions on setup when the Profire 610 comes in.

Thanks,
John Griffin

[Mike Kujbida]

John (Griffin, that is), if you want your head to explode, read the following on the Gearslutz forum.
Standard Mixing Levels for Movie Theater, DVD, TV, Radio and Games

[John Griffin]

Thanks Mike.

I will definitely be adding those links to my OneNote notebook for Vegas.

Thanks,
John

[John Rofrano]

You’re welcome. I should also point out that pink noise can be used to EQ your room flat since it contains all frequencies. It’s best to use test equipment for this because you want a microphone that doesn’t color the sound but using pink noise, a spectrum/frequency analyser, and an EQ, you can adjust the EQ for flat response for your room by watching the frequency analyser’s response to the pink noise. Back when I played in a band, our sound man would EQ each new venue this way. It really helped to get a consistent sound no matter where we played.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com