How loud do you monitor your mixes and tracking?

[skunkyfunk]

Personally, I monitor a bit loud, but I set my monitors to very high volume (more like +3dB in my active monitors) so I would be forced to pull down the faders to have more headroom. 

The drawback of this:  DO NOT OPEN A COMMERCIAL MP3 AT FULL VOLUME WHILE MONITORING!

[djbhoyet]

I used headphones 

[mikep]

80 to 85 dBA maximum. 

[nolit]

I use an app on my celphone that measures the loudness of the sound at the spot where I sit and set the volume to measure around 80 to 86 db. That is the ideal loudness where you will hear most frequencies.

[Xelly]

I use an app on my celphone that measures the loudness of the sound at the spot where I sit and set the volume to measure around 80 to 86 db. That is the ideal loudness where you will hear most frequencies.

Ako mahina lang talaga. Sir nolit anong app yun? Hopefully may available for Ipad1. Alamin ko kung ilang db yung monitor ko. Nice thread sir Skunkyfunk!

[skunkyfunk]

85dB is loud.  But are we talking peak or RMS?

[mikep]

It is Leq or almost similar to RMS. It is a different measure. If you have an SPL meter,
normally, it will have it. Also, the meter should be set to A weighting, not C. For simplicity
sake, however, putting your meter at ear height in the area where you monitor,
set at A weighting, whatever immediate reading of 80 to 85 dB you get (Laf) that would be it. If you can
train your ear to listen to all nuances at lower SPLs, say a voice conversation
level of 70 to 75 dBA, it will be better.

[Xelly]

It is Leq or almost similar to RMS. It is a different measure. If you have an SPL meter,
normally, it will have it. Also, the meter should be set to A weighting, not C. For simplicity
sake, however, putting your meter at ear height in the area where you monitor,
set at A weighting, whatever immediate reading of 80 to 85 dB you get (Laf) that would be it. If you can
train your ear to listen to all nuances at lower SPLs, say a voice conversation
level of 70 to 75 dBA, it will be better.

+1
Nasa 75-80 dBA lang ata level ko.

[makinao]

When I was in school, I heard a story that in the old Abbey Road, they had an SPL meter over the mixing position, and that anyone that went over 60dbA would be punished. I tried that with Angee once, but we were missing some details. We eventually settled for under 70dbA. It required a lot of concentration, and it precluded lots of people in the room. But it was very good for long and potentially tiring mixing sessions.

[skunkyfunk]

When I was in school, I heard a story that in the old Abbey Road, they had an SPL meter over the mixing position, and that anyone that went over 60dbA would be punished. I tried that with Angee once, but we were missing some details. We eventually settled for under 70dbA. It required a lot of concentration, and it precluded lots of people in the room. But it was very good for long and potentially tiring mixing sessions.

above 60dbA?  At Abbey Road?  Wow no wonder a lot of nuances came out when very old Abbey road recordings were hyper-compressed to today's standards.

[makinao]

skunkyfunk: sanayan lang yan. At first, I did that to minimize ear fatigue. Eventually this taught me to hear nuances at low levels, specially if its an album project with wide dynamic range. Last times I worked with Angee and Shinji, mababa na rin ang levels nila during mixing.

Right now I'm doing a phonography/soundscape project wherein the keynote of the environment is in the 50dbAs, with peaks (passing jeepneys and trucks) in the 90dbAs. If I can't discern what's happening in the keynote and pump up the monitor levels, the peaks will kill either my ears, or the monitors.