# 0 VU



## ngarjuna (Mar 29, 2010)

For those who gain stage...what are you using for 0 VU?

I've been using -18 due to the console programs I use (AlexB's Nebula consoles) and it works well overall.

Just curious what others are using.


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## immortalgropher (Feb 16, 2010)

same as you .


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## marco_ktl (Sep 6, 2009)

Same here!


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## maikol (Nov 7, 2008)

Ditto!


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## immortalgropher (Feb 16, 2010)

I wouldn't change it for squat.


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## spacedout (Dec 17, 2007)

Never had the opportunity to use an analogue console :dontknow:

But from what I understand from Bob Katz's book, -18 dBFS should be the standard reference. Or am I confusing separate issues?


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## ngarjuna (Mar 29, 2010)

K-system is similar to using a VU style system but there are subtle differences. K-system is definitely designed with digital in mind (taking either +12, +14 or +20 as the dBFS ceiling) whereas an analog VU system assumes that you can drive the signal above 0 VU within the range of possibility that hardware offers. Headroom on analog systems definitely varies. That's why it's so important to keep 0 VU = -18dB in mind when using these Nebula programs; it treats signals above that mark as though you were driving an analog input. Obviously different console programs (like the original consoles they were sampled from) behave differently at different input levels.

K-System is also (ideally, though not always in practice) supposed to help people on the mastering end of things to calibrate to a certain level so that K-14 mixes are all somewhat 'even' to one another loudness wise. Apparently (I have little experience here) this is how movie mixes work which is why you don't have to drastically adjust the volume control for every different movie you play on a particular system.

But...if you were to adhere to, say, K-20 for mixing (which is what Bob recommends) and use that for your gain staging, you'd probably end up with similar sorts of results as if you mixed with 0 VU = -18dB.


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## immortalgropher (Feb 16, 2010)

Had I not researched gain staging much more I wouldn't have wound up that way. I don't have anything but LE over here, but my mixes have improved drastically due to the switch I made, so when I hit the studio in sept, I am going to confuse the student that works with me on this particular album LOL. 

He or she will be confused because they pretty much taught us "record hot" in school. I'm going to turn one kid's world upside down XD.


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## spacedout (Dec 17, 2007)

Record hot when you have 24 bits available? What for? Then again, I never went to school either :yikes:


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## immortalgropher (Feb 16, 2010)

spacedout said:


> Record hot when you have 24 bits available? What for? Then again, I never went to school either :yikes:


LOL. I basically forgot everything they taught us in regards to gain staging and stuff after I got out and re-learned that part on my own and ended up intertwining my new information with certain live sound concepts and I haven't looked back.

Not saying I didn't learn anything because I did. . I just highly disagree with "record hot" now. The school I went to is Willie Nelson's old studio
which has an epically old API console which goes through a tape machine and then into pro tools. I know full well now the only reason they taught
us "record hot" was simply because it's a 32857909345 year old fossil. And to push the pre amps to get "the most out of it" I'm sure.


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## tehguit (Jul 19, 2009)

I record hot... but thats mostly because i'm tracking through an ssl and it sounds better when driven a bit i think.


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