Au - Audio Levels & Lingo

Key Audio terminology


Frequency

Frequency is the number of waveforms generated in one second

The average adult human audio range for hearing is between 20hz - 20Khz

Amplitude

How much the sound wave fluctuates up and down

Files with smaller fluctuations will be softer and bigger fluctuations will be louder

Sample Rate

The higher the sample rate the more detail in the audio

Film and TV use a sample rate of 48,000 Hz (48 kHz)

CD's will generally use 44.1 kHz

Bit Depth

The higher the Bit Depth the greater the dynamic range = greater the amplitude range

Audio Levels


-18 dB Minimum audio range for dialogue

Background noise

A good starting point for background, ambient audio is to set the levels around -24 to -34 to start with then adjust according to the rest of your mix

-12 dB Average audio levels for dialogue

Average

All dialogue should average around -12 dB (give or take a range of 4 dB)

-6 dB Maximum audio range for dialogue

Spot Effects

If you are looking for impact relative to the average audio range then -6 dB is a good range for spot effects - ie. a gun shot, a door slamming, etc.

0 dB - Distortion

Distortion

You have run out of audio information at this point, the export will crunch the data and you will have terrible sounding distorted audio