No you can't. The absolute hiest level you should be shooting for when recording in digital is minus 0.1DB. Any higher than that and you will be clipping your digital converters. Regards, Phil Muir P J Muir Productions, Music And Audio Production Telephone: US (615) 713-2021 UK+44-1747-821-794 Mobile: UK +44-7968-136-246 E-mail: info@xxxxxxxxxxxx URL: www.philmuir.com/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Paper Music To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 2:57 PM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 0 dB or higher? Mike, I just went back and looked at your original post, and I wanted to comment on the dB levels. True, they do say that 0 dB is optimal, but that should be your goal when recording analog. Once you get a clean recording, without distortion, clipping, or hiss, you can start upping the dB levels in the master. If you're recording all digital, with no samples, you could theoretically record as high as you want and set your playback levels back to 0 dB. Remember that the 0 dB standard is an analog standard. Also, for CDs nowadays, I think they're bumping up the levels to get attention. That's why TV commercials are so much louder than the programs: so you can hear clearly from the bathroom. Sincerely, Andy ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Christer To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 6:45 AM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 0 dB or higher? Cheers! ----- Original Message ----- From: Omar Binno To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 1:28 PM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 0 dB or higher? Here's the info. http://store.cakewalk.com/b2cus/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=10-CWBE1.00-20E Omar Binno AIM: LOD1116 Skype: obinno1 Website: www.omarbinno.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Christer To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 8:20 AM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 0 dB or higher? Who makes Boost 11? Cheers Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike C To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 12:22 PM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: 0 dB or higher? hey there what you need to do is the following. There is a plug in called Boost11 you need to insert this as your master bus, and route all of your tracks to this. In the boost11 plugin you will find several presets which you can adjust to make sure that your mix sounds great. This is just one option you could do, the other is to normalize your mix by running it through sound forge. However the boost11 plugin does work well for most mixes. But in the long run you might be better off getting Soundforge to complete your final mixes. Its not an expensive program, and is definatly worth it. ------ Original Message ----- From: Stacy Blackwell To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 11:23 PM Subject: [ddots-l] 0 dB or higher? Hello again. My new question is that I have maxed the outputs of a project until it sounded balanced. I pushed everything to the 0 dB output level. I thought the mix was good, but when compared to a regular CD, the overall volume was a lot lower. To match the volume, I had to max out some buses to 6 dB. I shouldn't have to do this, should I? I thought 0 dB was where the volume should be for a quality recording. Are my original recording levels too low? I don't think they were that far below 0 dB. My MP3 conversion was also quieter in volume. Any suggestions? S.B. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. Check it out. ____________________________________________________________ Need cash? Click to get an emergency loan, bad credit ok