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stringmen



Joined: 08/08/06
Posts: 393
Loc: Durham, UK
DAW waveform
      #785061 - 05/11/09 07:00 PM

Hi,

Ive sent a track from cubase sx3 out from an interface to feed a mixing desk and recorded the master outs back into the interface. The desks master peak levels show at about +4 dbu (think its a vu style led display as it doesnt show fast peaks) and the recorded stereo track peaks at -3.5 dbfs in cubase sx3. It sounds ok (hard to tell after a full day) compared to the direct signal from the desk but the waveform in cubase is almost just 2 black lines and when i zoom right in on it alot of the waveforms are chopped off ie they are too large for the display. I would have assumed ive gone over 0dbfs to manage this but the track reached a maximum of -3.5 dbfs.
Ive noticed this cutting off of the waveform (less than here but still present) before on individual audio channels in cubase despite never allowing recorded peaks to go above -10 dbfs.
Can someone explain this please - have i gone wrong somewhere or is this a fault/anomoly in cubase sx3 ? The interfaces line inputs were roughly set so that they dont add to or pad the signal from the desk. Balanced trs lines were used from desk outs to interface ins. No gain was added to the DAW input.

Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks

Peter


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jayzed
member


Joined: 19/03/04
Posts: 679
Loc: North London
Re: DAW waveform new [Re: stringmen]
      #785062 - 05/11/09 07:04 PM

There's a little zoom triangle/fader thingy at the top right of the project window that can be used to zoom waveforms.

Is this at it's lowest position?

If not, it's quite possible to have a waveform appear clipped but it's only the display.


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Bob Moose



Joined: 17/01/08
Posts: 361
Re: DAW waveform new [Re: stringmen]
      #785179 - 06/11/09 10:30 AM

Could this be related to "intersample peaks"?
When converting a digital signal to an analogue signal, you can get some levels that are higher than 0dBFS. Only a "reconstruction meter" can display these intersample peaks. This kind of meter is based on oversampling... You can find one in Izotope Ozone and in RME DIGICheck (requires an RME audio interface), for example.

Best regards
-j


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stringmen



Joined: 08/08/06
Posts: 393
Loc: Durham, UK
Re: DAW waveform new [Re: jayzed]
      #785209 - 06/11/09 12:06 PM

Hi and thanks very much for your help - i never even noticed that bar in the top right corner before - that did the trick.

Cheers

Peter

Edit : cheers bob, its sorted now but thanks for your help.

Edited by stringmen (06/11/09 12:08 PM)


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