Broadcast TV audio settings

[scrimski]

It's 48 kHz leveled to 0dB FS, at least here in Europe.

[Mylenium]

Hi there,

I have a small issue with audio level, hope you can help:
I have made a 3D animation for a tv spot and I have been asked to mix sound at a peak level not above +12db's ; which I guess is represented by the top of the red blocks in the audio window.

My audio never hit the red zone (but sometimes the yellow part) in the audio window and the cursors are at 0.
The sound is perfectly clean on my computer but I have some sound distortions (like if the sound hits the red zone on several places) when I watch/listen to it on tv.
The sound mix seems already lower than a standard movie dvd movie, so I wonder if i am doing something wrong…

Every sound used in the mix are 44.1Khz / 16 bit / stereo.

Any tip about audio settings for broadcast tv would be appreciated.

Hope my sort of english makes sense…

thanks.

Audio levels should in theory not pass beyond -3 dB for stereo mix, with 0 dB being the required mastering level. If you are getting clipping and feedback, I'd check the file in a wave editor and see if there are any peaks exceeding that range and normalize it properly. Don't let yourself be fooled by AE's internal VU meters, they could be quite wrong. To be on the safe side, you could always give them an unprocessed audio file or the original CD separate from the video. They can then put it together when they online the content on their (hopefully) calibrated edit suite/ playout server.

Mylenium

[tylerdurden369]

Thanks guys.

"It's 48 kHz leveled to 0dB FS, at least here in Europe."
Does it make sense to export at 48 kHz even if my original sound mix is at 44.1 kHz?

Also, it's a commercial for a US tv, so if anyone knows what the US tv kHz standard is?

Btw, a noobs question:
I have a composition with all the sound effects layers,
is there another way in order to control the master level than dropping this composition into another one?

[scrimski]

Actualy it doesn't make sense to do an audio mix in 44 kHz when editing. Don't know how AE handles this, since I do my audio stuff due to several reasons in Avid or FCP.

[tylerdurden369]

Actualy it doesn't make sense to do an audio mix in 44 kHz when editing. Don't know how AE handles this, since I do my audio stuff due to several reasons in Avid or FCP.

Ok, I understand.
But as all the sound effects I use in the spots are originally at 44.1 kHz, do you think that converting the final sound mix to 48 kHz won't cause any problem?

thanks again.

[Mylenium]

Ok, I understand.
But as all the sound effects I use in the spots are originally at 44.1 kHz, do you think that converting the final sound mix to 48 kHz won't cause any problem?

thanks again.

Leave it at 44 kHz! AE is bad enough as it is for this type of stuff. Sample rate conversion is only goiung to make your sounds even less clean (AE does not apply any temporal antialiasing to audio!). Since you are saying you are using AE's audio effects, also check if those do not accidentally mess up your loudness levels.

Mylenium

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