cinningbao Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 I feel like this is normal knowledge and I'm just a bit behind the times, but can someone please explain to me why Logic colours these peak indicators differently? I don't have time to perform tests today (which I would normally do) so I thought I'd ask you guys.. Left channel is an audio channel and the right is the stereo output. What crucial information am I missing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 They both mean your signal goes over 0 dBFS. Yellow means the over happens in the 32 bit floating point realm, meaning it's not creating distortion. Red means the over happens at the output of Logic, just before the signal is converted to 24 bit fixed point, meaning it's creating distortion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinningbao Posted December 28, 2019 Author Share Posted December 28, 2019 Oh yeah, I know they both mean the signal is above 0 dBFS, I was just wondering if the orange/yellow and red denote a different 'thing', and apparently that difference is 24/32-bit. thanks David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
des99 Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 The difference is the level of severity of the warnings. Yellow = "you're too loud, but it's not a problem as such" and red = "You're too loud, and you're affecting/damaging your audio" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 You're welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulyD Posted December 28, 2019 Share Posted December 28, 2019 It means you're not using enough limiters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deckard1 Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Thanks for explaining. I was curious too. Why would I get the red indicator when using a brick wall limiter on the stereo output though? Oxymoron? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 My guess is it depends how many 0 dBFS samples in a row? One 0 dBFS sample in a row doesn't necessarily result in distortion but two or more are likely to result in distortion. If you're interested in this matter you can read up on inter-sample peak distortion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deckard1 Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 My guess is it depends how many 0 dBFS samples in a row? One 0 dBFS sample in a row doesn't necessarily result in distortion but two or more are likely to result in distortion. If you're interested in this matter you can read up on inter-sample peak distortion. Thanks, David. Will do. What do you mean ‘in a row’? I’ll read up on it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 I mean successive 0 dBFS samples in the digital audio signal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulyD Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Oh, you are using a limiter! Okay. Well, I was halfway joking. When you see peaks going over 0 during playback on tracks that were recorded well below 0, that means they are being effected by a plug-in that is adding gain or collectively being summed with too much level. However, sometimes when I'm mixing and see that, I'll throw a limiter on a track or bus as a bandaid and fix it later if I'm focusing on something else. When you see a limiter passing transients above 0, that's either by design or it's a setting that can be adjusted. Limiters set to clip or suppress transients will put a hard stop on anything that hits your output level setting. Some can let transient peaks pass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Oh and I was assuming yellow and or red 0 dBFS readings. If the peak reading is above 0 dBFS then it could be a variety of reasons. Check that the master fader is set to 0 dB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deckard1 Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Oh and I was assuming yellow and or red 0 dBFS readings. If the peak reading is above 0 dBFS then it could be a variety of reasons. Check that the master fader is set to 0 dB. That kind of raises another question...at least for me. Should the master fader (i.e. stereo output) always be left at 0.0? I saw a mixer just lower the master fader to reduce the stereo output meter so it wouldn't clip...turn red. Seems simple enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted December 29, 2019 Share Posted December 29, 2019 Should the master fader (i.e. stereo output) always be left at 0.0? Yes. I saw a mixer just lower the master fader to reduce the stereo output meter so it wouldn't clip...turn red. Seems simple enough. That's the equivalent of making your speedometer read more than the actual speed of your car so that you won't go over the speed limit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddydenton Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Here's something that confuses me. In the attached screengrab the Peak Level indicator is showing a yellow value which as I understand from the above explanation means is is over 0 dBFS in the 32 bit realm, however the value is -1.2. So I don't understand how/why it is saying I'm over 0 dBFS but the value is in the negative. Would love someone to explain what is happening here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Here's something that confuses me. In the attached screengrab the Peak Level indicator is showing a yellow value which as I understand from the above explanation means is is over 0 dBFS in the 32 bit realm No, that explanation was the answer to another situation where the peak value was positive. however the value is -1.2. That means you're peaking at -1.2 dBFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
des99 Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 That’s not saying you are going over 0dBFS, that’s saying your peak is at -1.2dBFS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddydenton Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Ok so the yellow colour is just to indicate that I'm nearing 0 dBFS, I'm not clipping in the 32 bit realm or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted February 8, 2021 Share Posted February 8, 2021 Ok so the yellow colour is just to indicate that I'm nearing 0 dBFS, I'm not clipping in the 32 bit realm or something? Correct you will see the yellow/orange numbers on black background when the levels are within -1.9 dBFS to - 0.0 dBFS. Then starting at +0.1 dBFS and up the background of the indicator turns orange with white numbers to indicate 32 bit realm positive dBFS values. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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