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Export levels for DCP
Hi CC,
I’m delivering a Quicktime file (ProRes 4×4) for DCP from a project that was mastered for web. The techs came back that the audio levels are too high. The audio is only a WAV of a already mastered song which has a consistent peak. I was just going to drop the volume so it peaked at a lower level. Their specs are
- Ref level = -20dBFS
- Output level = 85dBc
Am I just dropping the volume to peak at -20 dB? I’m assuming so but, man, I’ve only gone as low as -12dB before.
Is there an easy way in Premiere to measure the output level, which I don’t completely grasp, as most googling places that metric in the audio engineer realm?
Thanks in advance; I haven’t mastered for broadcast myself in a long while.
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2 Replies
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Reference level is not the same as peak levels and DCPs don’t have a signal maximum (other than -0).
TLDR: Set your levels to broadcast standards with your average or median levels at -20.
Ref -20dBFS is the common reference level for broadcast, the “reference” historically being the level of the 1Khz tone in Bars and Tone. These days it’s easier to think of this as the average or median level of a standard voice narration which is typically set at reference level.
Cinema soundtracks are not referenced not to a digital meter level but to a specific playback loudness, aka volume. Theaters do not have volume control so you mix to a specific playback loudness in a calibrated room. This standard reference level is 85dBc.
Note the dBFS and dBc are completely different measures. The first is a digital signal level. The second is real-world loudness.
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Thank you, Tod. I took the levels down to -12 and found the average loudness to be -22 LUFS.
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