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Sun 17 Feb 08 @ 2:15 am

This is from two of my posts in the forum.

A digital signal should not be boosted beyond 0db unless you are using a professional interface that has a programmed headroom beyond. If I remember correctly, commercial products use -4db headroom and pro uses +6dB headroom. If your gear doesnt have a specific setting for this, it means its -4dB. If you ever experience distortion, you are boosting too much. If you dont hear distortion, that doesnt mean it isnt distorted, it could mean there are saturation filters in the circuitry.

The best way to ensure best possible sound quality is stay below 0dB and never boost the EQ beyond 0dB. Use the gain on the last point before going to the speakers (the mixer if you use one).
sound is an analog function. when you push the levels, you eventually get distortion, but before that you get a natural effect from analog circuits called 'saturation' which makes it a warmer sound.

you dont get this in the digital world. it _just_ clips. having said that, alot of digital circuit manufacturers are putting elements in which mimic saturation. but there is a limit to it.

the point is moot when were talking mixers. on my A&H I usually have it close to redline on the channel input because there is a very annoying attribute to my xone:3d when using the digital master output back into my pc for recording..... it's very low. since the digital output is pre-master but post-fader, your signal strength is quite weak. i find this very irritating especially for broadcasting unless i would use the analog output which is post-master and re-digitize it on the way back into the pc. this kinda defeats the purpose for having AD/DA converters in the mixer itself. no matter though, i will be switching to an RME Hammerfall card in the next month or so.

regarding the bit about the pro interface, im talking about the soundcard (whether it is in the mixer or not, like the xone:3d). the whole deal is about signal to noise ratios. if you can get a louder signal out of an instrument and into a recording bus (mixer) without distorting, that means your noise level is drowned out much further than commercial products. this is only for the benefit of recording. once recorded and packaged (cd, download, vinyl, etc) the playback headroom is irrelevant because it's only reproducing the packaged source. if you reproduce a source which had alot of noise, you will hear it. if your recording had a very high SNR then the noise is much less and the percieved quality is much greater.

thats basically how it works. now how this relates to VDJ: Ripped CDs and downloads are _already_ mastered to it's limit. Vinyl is different due to the PVC medium, but I wont bother explaining that. Basically if you boost the gain of something which is already as loud as it can possibly get in the digital domain, it is garunteed to clip.

this is a substantial thing which most VDJ users dont know or realize. you cannot boost a digital signal father than it's maximum headroom. the whole point of CD and Digital mastering is to achieve exactly that. So keeping it in VDJ at -3dB or lower means you are not quite as loud, but you have room for manipulating the sound with effects and EQ without distorting.

users who have an external mixer just need to make the channel input stay out of the red, but by that point, its not digital anymore and saturation comes into play.

for users who use hercules and whatnot, they will very easily distort their signal when they dont adhere to the rules because all effects and eqing is still done in the digital domain.

hope this explanation helps.