Finding max peek level

funkytwig wrote on 10/28/2014, 5:20 AM
Hi, is there a way of easily finding the max peek level of audio. Its a 70 min project. I need to do this as for Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) the max peek level must be -12db and I can add a adjustment in the software to make the DCP but need a acurate indication of the peek in the project.

It may be that is is best to use a utility to do this but cant find one.

Ben

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/28/2014, 7:02 AM
Could you take the final rendered audio, put it in Vegas, normalize it, then lower the track volume to -12 & render out the final output with that audio?
farss wrote on 10/28/2014, 9:19 AM
Sound Forge can scan an audio file and tell you what the peak level is. It can also normalise peak levels to a given value, if fact I'm pretty certain you can do this in Vegas, there's a setting somewhere that'll let you change the default normalisation value.

If you want to know the max peak using Vegas, render the audio to a new track, R Click the track, select Normalise. How many dB gain is being added is how many dB below 0dB FS your audio is.

That said -12dB peak max sound unusual to me, that means 12dB of headroom is being wasted unless it has something to do with Dolby encoding and 5.1.

Bob.
johnmeyer wrote on 10/28/2014, 9:47 AM
If you have SoundForge, it does this. You can "Find" the largest peak, and it will actually position the cursor over the peak.

Another way you can do it is to run the Statistics function. It will return various statistics about each channel, including the peaks.

If you want to search further on this topic, be sure to search on "peak" rather than "peek."

[edit] Bob (farss) beet me too it (or should that be "beat?").
John_Cline wrote on 10/28/2014, 5:40 PM
Setting levels based on peaks makes no sense, the human ear perceives loudness based on average levels. It makes more sense to measure average levels and then use that to hit a target perceived loudness and then limit the peaks to comply with a maximum peak level. The CALM Act in the U.S. specifies an average level of -24db, so it is a relatively simple matter in Sound Forge of using Wavehammer or any other limiter plugin to adjust the program to -24db average and limit the peaks to -12db.
rraud wrote on 10/29/2014, 11:12 AM
Lately all broadcasters I've encountered specify the (CALM Act) ATSC or EBU recommended loudness standard. Prior to that, most US entities were -20dBFS (reference level) with program peaks not exceeding -10dBFS.
Marc S wrote on 10/29/2014, 1:54 PM
Here's an excellent explanation of the CALM act specs and how to use the new loudness meters in Sony Vegas 13 to make sure you comply. It was recorded at the Sony booth at NAB.



That said it looks like the poster needs to match a different specification and he has been told what it is (-12db peak level). You could always download the trial of soundforge if you do not own it already. Export a mixed master to a new track in Vegas and then right click and choose open in Sound Forge. The normalize function has a scan levels option. Choose you're peak level you want to normalize to and apply then save. Since Sound Forge is a destructive editor the changes will show up in Vegas.