What average audio level do most users aim for?

I have read Ken Stone's page on audio in FCP, where he recommends an average audio level of -12 dB for most work with DV. Is this what most people here aim for?
I have bought a lot of background music files, and when initially brought in, mostly they stay in the general area of -12 dB, though some are a little louder. When audio from my video footage is added, they almost always go into the yellow and even occasionally into the red areas. There are many booms and explosions in my footage, and these always go all the way into the red area for a second or two. Is this acceptable? If I reduce the volume of these, the booms and explosions get lost in the music.
Thanks for any advice.

Hi Bob,
As far as I know, Apple's reference level is -12db and it's what I think most people target. Audio that goes into the yellow shouldn't be any cause for worry, but material that consistently goes up to or beyond 0db is a problem. For what it's worth, professionals typically target a -20db digital reference level.
In your case you have sound with a wide dynamic range but, since it's booms & explosions, if you're not hearing any noticeable distortion on playback I wouldn't worry about those transient sounds.
You could try reducing your background music level to about -20db and then cut back the level of your booms/explosions a bit to keep them out of the red. Hopefully that way they won't get as lost in the background music.

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I posted this in Final Cut Pro Forum as well, but no answer yet...
Been doing a lot of reading, but still cannot find a clear answer to this question...
What should my average audio levels be set at for a Standard DV indie film headed for the festivals on DVD?
I've read about the difference in audio ranges for TV & Cinema, and I've read about the average being around -12db & no more than -3db...
As a reference, I put 3 professional movies in my DVD player, and my sound is a lot lower. I need to boost them, but where should my meter read at on average?
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Can anyone help me out, so that I can put this film in the bag?
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Frankie

Hi Frankie:
I'm afraid your on a very slippery slope. First of all your comparing a home release of a DVD and comparing that with a movie. These are very different animals. The second question would be what are your comparisons and how are you making them. The speakers that you use for editing may not be useful for this job. Second of all you must calibrate your system so that you know what is what. Remember that -12 dB full scale digital is equivalent to 0+- within the analogue scale. You must calibrate your system so that you get a reading of -12dB at your outputs and 85dB when measured with a dB meter on fast and "B" weighted at the mixing position. You must do this using a 1k sine wave which is now calibrated in the room. Mark out this level using a dorrough meter. That will give you the proper level you are seeking. -3dB fsd is for peaks only. That is the loudest point at which your movie can fall. This is not for just dialogue. and -12dB fsd is the average of the soundtrack. The next question is what is the format of your deliverable? Film has it's own issues which are further complicated by each of the formats such as Dolby, Dolby digital, DTS, SSDS, etc. Remember that film is an optical medium unlike delivering on Tape or as files on a disk or HDD. In addition you may find that the festival should have restrictions and guidelines for audio levels as well as video levels and color standards if they don't they generally don't have their act together. I recently submitted to a film festival who's restrictions were incomplete and their guidelines ambiguous at best. Their guidelines were as follows. The deliverable must be as a DV tape accompanied by an AVI file. no audio levels, no video levels and a request that makes no sense. AVI file format or DV tape. These should never be the only required settings, and they seemed to be aimed at rank amateurs. DV tape is a very highly compressed format and in this day and age if your not shooting in HD you must be an amateur. What your acquisition format is should be irrelevant. EX Cam EXD Cam EX SR HDV P2 SxS, SDHC etc. are the formats you need to deal with to get the project into your editing system. Once you have completed your edit, color grading, and post audio including music you should then deal with a codec standard for deliverables. I can only say AVI isn't one! There are several Quicktime file types that should be acceptable depending on the audience and how big the screen will be. Mpeg 2 used in television or Mpeg 4 should be acceptable. Most if not all systems should be able to output these files but there are more. The audio should be in a standard format either aiff or wave for stereo but more complicated mixes such as surround mixes should use a compressed format such as Dolby or Dolby digital of the 5.1 or 7.1 variety. These are industry standards and folks who run these festivals should know this. If not perhaps they need to be replaced.

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Though a great idea, you also have to understand that the a65 isn't as film oriented camera like other cameras.
DSLR cameras with the audio controls are designed with film making in mind, thus they have that option.
Most DSLRs (at least, back in the days) was simply a camera to take photos. If you wanted to do film, you'd buy a dedicated film recorder for that. Having video capabilities in a DSLR was a bonus.
Nowadays, it's merging, bang for buck, reaching to a boarder audience, one size fits all, etc, and unfortunately, the a65 wasn't part of that 'nowadays' era.
The a99 and a77ii, if I remember correctly, has audio controls.
A lot of the newer Sony models (mirrorless) also have audio controls, that is, the ones that a targeted towards film making and not just great photos with the bonus of great video.
Also, I would presume that a lot of 'professional' videographers will either use external mics such as on a pole, a lapel mic, etc, to capture perfect audio, or if not, at least a shotgun/boom mic attached to the camera.
When doing such, there technically shouldn't be a lot of problems with the audio quality. Of course, if those external mics are still recorded into the camera, then yeah... but if they're recorded separately and slapped on during post processing... shouldn't be any problems...
If you're relying purely on the a65 and it's AGC, then there definitely will be shortcomings here and there unfortunately.
I recently filmed my niece-in-law's wedding. I didn't have any fancy mic setups (can't afford it at this stage), and this wasn't any sort of 'professional' work, more of just something for the family (free), but the audio came out excellent. Yes, it caught ambient noise (obviously), but I don't hear any cutoffs or badly pitched noises, or anything. The loud music and people cheering on and such all came through very clearly. Sure, it's no 'professional' bitrate or anything, but at 192kbps, it did the job.
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Is there a way to smooth audio level keyframes, like there is for filter and motion keyframes?
thanks for your replies!

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Hello Everyone,
I am currently editing a short documentary focused on a Rock band. As I never really spent many energies on Audio in my previous projects, I would like to be precise in this one.
Does anybody knows what are the audio levels that I should mantain for dialogues? I heard that they should stay below 12-dB. Is that true and is there anything else I should know?
In addition, I obviously will put rock songs during the film, is there another rule for music?
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Richard,
Really? That low?
I generally find that setting the total output to -6 or so makes it about the same level as commercially made videos - like from Vevo.
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I used this web site to do it. Free Online YouTube Downloader: Download YouTube Videos, Facebook and many others!
It doesn't make you download any software. I imported the resulting MP4 and set the gain to -6. You do it and see how you feel about it.
Please, anyone reading this, do not use other people's work in your own videos. This is for the purpose of testing only.
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In FCP 3, I relied on audio meters to ensure that my peak audio levels never went above -6. The meters "remembered" the highest level registered. I could play the entire timeline and come back 30 minutes later and know exactly the highest audio level reached. Now in FCP 5.1, the peak audio level stays on the meter for only about 3 seconds, then resets itself. So, the question is, is there a way to simply measure the peak audio levels to ensure that my program is broadcast safe. Thanks in advance...Brian

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I need, very often, to export the same clip with different audio levels.
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I am having a lot of trouble with finding out and setting the audio levels in and out of iTunes.
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What average audio level do most users aim for?

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