Worry-free monitoring technique
Several audio friends I know (Jeffrey Fischer & Dave Cebrowski) put me on to a different way of monitoring. The technique stresses the importance of allowing for headroom when working in an all digital environment.
To accomplish this, do NOT attempt to have your music “in the red” all of the time. Instead, calibrate your monitors so that -20 dB = 0 VU = 83 dB SPL per monitor. Then, I use the K-14 or K-20 monitoring system with my Precision Limiter from Universal Audio.
The wonderful part about this is that you can actually mix WITHOUT looking at the meter all the time! 83 dB in this system sounds plenty loud, so you know when things are “too loud”, and you just adjust. At the same time, peaks can be allowed because you have between 14 and 20 dB of headroom! (depending on which system you use). To read more about the K-system, designed by legendary mastering engineer Bob Katz, you can read this article on his website.
Enjoy and happy mixing!
