![]() Most professional audio interfaces are designed such that +4 dBu on the analog side ends up being somewhere between -20 and -14 dBFS on the digital side.Īnd this brings us to our headroom definition: Headroom is simply defined as the available level above the nominal level before clipping. In a purely digital environment this concept doesn’t make much sense, but if we think about an audio interface-where digital meets analog and vice versa-we can start to bring some definition to it. For professional devices this is almost always +4 dBu. ![]() ![]() In analog audio equipment, however, the nominal level is defined as the average signal level at which the device is designed to operate. Nominal level is perhaps a bit more esoteric, especially if you’re accustomed to dealing with digital audio. In professional analog equipment this is often about +24 dBu-although I’ve seen hardware with clipping points anywhere between +18 and +28 dBu. In a fixed point digital audio system this is 0 dBFS- decibels full scale. If you try to increase the level of your audio past this point, rather than an increase in output level you simply end up with distortion. In order to fully understand this definition, we need to make sure we have two other terms under our belt as well: clipping and nominal level.Ĭlipping is essentially the level at which an audio system runs out of steam. Headroom is defined as the available level above the nominal level before clipping. ![]()
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