SOUND ON SOUND

[timetorecordstuff]

Hello there, I am a voice actor and recently had a live recording session. I just happened to ask the engineer out of curiosity where my noise floor was sitting. He said it was at -74db which is fantastic as the audio quality standard for audiobook narration is a noise floor of at least -60db. Thing is, I can only see down to -60db with Logic Pro X levels meter. I would like to be able to find out what the true noise floor is but obviously I can't see anything quieter than -60db.

Any suggestions out there?

[Sam Spoons]

I'm not a Logic user but in Reaper I can split the track leaving a section of 'silence' and use the 'normalise' feature to show the max level of that section. The meters in reaper show down to -90dBFS but have, IIRC, options to change that. Bear in mind when you normalise a track to raise the level of the peaks to, say, -3dBFS or whatever the delivery medium requires the noise floor will come up by the same amount.

[ef37a]

I still use Samplitude SE8 (magazine freebie) for some things because the meters go down to -90dB plus you get a numerical readout of rms and peak values below that.
Annoyingly, ProX 3 which I paid good money for only goes down to neg 60!

AA1.5 oes to -90 as well but I have just 'hacked' Audacity, <Edit, Preferences. Interface and you can set the meters to pretty much anything. Mine now read down to -96dB fs!

Dave.

[blinddrew]

I would have expected it to be a user-configurable setting.

[ef37a]

I would have expected it to be a user-configurable setting.

Do you mean in Logic D or Audacity? I sort of expected the latter, the free app is pretty versatile but I was pleased to actually find the setting.

Why don't all DAWs give these options? How hard can it be? (q Jezzer!)

Dave.

[blinddrew]

I meant in Logic. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't an option somewhere.

[James Perrett]

This is where we need Desmond...

I'll move this to the Mac forum because it seems to be more of a Logic query now.

[desmond]

Logic is really a musical environment for creatives, it's not really designed as an engineering tool, nor does it offer every geeky option that more nerdy tools like Reaper do - it seems many Logic users are confused enough with the basics, let alone configurable choices of everything. The Apple way in general is to offer *useful* options to most, not offer *every* option for every niche requirement (for that, go to Reaper! )

You can change the channel meters between exponential and linear which gives more detail lower down, but in the main, the default meters and metering tools bottom out at -60dBFS.

If you want something else, there are plenty of third party metering tools which offer more sophisticated tools. I had a look at iZotope Insight, and that doesn't offer much useful stuff down there - there's a -50dBFS scale mark, the next one is -inf, and while you can make it bigger and there is there way more meter resolution around that lower end, I'm not sure if these kinds of meters are that useful for making precise measurements down low - you may be better off running a wav editor tool (SoundForge, DSP Quattro, WaveLab, Audition, iZotope RZ etc), where you can make precise selections and measurements.

Or failing that, in Logic, whack in some gain plugins and add, say, +36dB of gain, make your measurements, then subtract 36dB from them...

[ef37a]

This is where we need Desmond...

I'll move this to the Mac forum because it seems to be more of a Logic query now.

Aww!

Dave.

[forumuser840717]

I would have expected it to be a user-configurable setting.

Do you mean in Logic D or Audacity? I sort of expected the latter, the free app is pretty versatile but I was pleased to actually find the setting.

Why don't all DAWs give these options? How hard can it be? (q Jezzer!)

It's a settable option (from -10 to -90dBFS in 10dB steps) in Pro X3 for the metering "visualisation" windows (one of many things under the Settings option in the context menu that pops up when you right click on the meter). The meters in the mixer depend on settings in the mixer skin you choose. In the ones I normally use for the mixer in Pro X3 the meters go down to -80dBFS as standard.

[Dr. Bing Klazeby]

This might be another way to achieve what you want to do in Logic. Open the stock Channel EQ on the audio channel you want to explore the noise floor on, then if you grab and scroll up the dB scale found at the far right of the EQ's graphic scale you can see any signal down to a little below -100dB. Either playback a 'silence' in your recording, or monitor the input of the audio channel your mic's going into and you should be able to see the noise floor you want to know about. Hope that's useful.

Cheers,

Bing

[timetorecordstuff]

I would have expected it to be a user-configurable setting.

Do you mean in Logic D or Audacity? I sort of expected the latter, the free app is pretty versatile but I was pleased to actually find the setting.

Why don't all DAWs give these options? How hard can it be? (q Jezzer!)

It's a settable option (from -10 to -90dBFS in 10dB steps) in Pro X3 for the metering "visualisation" windows (one of many things under the Settings option in the context menu that pops up when you right click on the meter). The meters in the mixer depend on settings in the mixer skin you choose. In the ones I normally use for the mixer in Pro X3 the meters go down to -80dBFS as standard.

Hey there, any way you could provide a screenshot of where this is? When I right click the level metering I just get the level meter box popping up, and can not find any setting options. I must be in the wrong place. I have Logic Pro version 10.6.0

[desmond]

It's a settable option in Pro X3

I must be in the wrong place. I have Logic Pro version 10.6.0

Yes, he's talking about a completely different app, not Logic.

[timetorecordstuff]

I figured it out. For all the Logic Pro 10.6 users this is how you view your noisefloor:
under "effects > metering > multimeter > and use these settings:
RMS Slow
Analyzer bands - either 63 or 31
Return Rate: 50db
Level: Peak & RMS
Return Rate: 50db

Then at the top set this:
Top: -40db
Range: 80db

This will show from -40db to -120db and then loop a part of your "recorded silence" and watch the analyzer bands. This will show you where your peaks are and where your signal is and where you noisefloor is.

Hope this helps!

[desmond]

Thanks for posting that - I did have a look at the Multimeter, and saw the Range setting, but I didn't think of adjusting the Top down on conjunction with that - good spot!