What are the best audio levels in Premiere?
 

Does anyone know what range you should aim to keep the audio level bars between in Premiere Pro?

For instance if you are editing a normal conversation what should be the minimum volume (in dB) you want to see, on the Premiere audio monitor, for quiet speech and what is the maximum volume you want for the loudest speech?

And what should be the maximum number of decibels for very loud sounds like shouting, gunshots or a glass smashing?

I notice the Premiere Pro CS3 audio monitor is marked -infinity, -30, -18, -12, -6, 0. I assume these numbers are in dB units.

The reason I ask is that I want to ensure the audio levels are correct when edit so that when I output to DVD or submit for television broadcast it all goes well.

Thanks!

Just make sure your overall levels doesn`t go over 0 (the VU bar would light red). Speech is most often mixed to -6 to -3 db with music background at -18 to -12.

Thanks Jiri!

Do you think these levels are safe for broadcast, especially if you have audio peaking just below the red?

I notice the levels you sugest are very different to those I am suggested to use on my camera which are:

Speech -20 to -12 dB, peaking at -10
Loud noises peaking near zero dB

You can find this info in the following thread:

What Audio Levels are best on the XH A1? - The Digital Video Information Network

Do you think this could cause me problems later on?

Anything that's clear, loud and below 0 at the same time should be fine for broadcasting, but then, every TV network has its own guidelines.

You are free to make your levels to your liking, there are no hard and fast rules, just suggestions. Just use your ears and don't go over 0 :)

Thanks very much for the confirmation Jiri.

Let the camera roll!