TV Mastering Levels

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TV Mastering Levels

Postby Zarven Kara » Tue Jun 16, 2020 4:18 pm

Hey guys,

I'm doing some voiceover work for TV. Just wondering if there are any pro's who can give us some info on levels for TV. Anything different than standard music consumption?

cheers

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Re: TV Mastering Levels

Postby Chris H » Tue Jun 16, 2020 4:57 pm

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Re: TV Mastering Levels

Postby smash » Thu Jun 18, 2020 5:57 pm

I'd just posted a long message... than re read your original post.

Just send with minimal processing, recorded well.

Even if you knew the exact requirements of the network the show is going to (and they change depending on Network, Platform, and Region), you still don't know what's going on under the VO anyway.

As long as it's not distorting, I'd much rather turn it down/compress it in the mix, than have to make it louder, or automate some life into it if it's slammed.

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Re: TV Mastering Levels

Postby Chinagraf » Fri Jun 19, 2020 12:01 pm

(edit) I just re-read and maybe you just mean recording VO to send to someone else to mix, not sure... If you are just doing that just record it with peaks hitting no more than -10 and as Simon said, don't over process it. I hate people sending me eq'd compressed cold voice as they have no idea what I need to do to it in the mix. I'd rahter jsut get the raw record with nothing done to it.

If your are doing the whole mix -

You have to conform to OP59, so you'll need loudness metering. Youlean is a good free realtime one :
https://youlean.co/youlean-loudness-meter/

- File master Level has to be -24.0 LUFS, measuring the whole mix, not just dialog for the whole duration (eg 15 or 30). There is a tolerance of +/- 1 LFUS, but hit 24 spot on if you can so it doesn't get touched in distribution.
- True peak not exceeding -2. Your loudness meter will show you this. Unless you final mix bus limiter can run in true peak mode, you will measure peaks above the ceiling you have set the limiter to. In reality if your mix is at -24 LUFS you TP will likely be around -10 to -15 depending on the dynamic range of the mix.
- 12 Frames silence at the start and end, so audio can only run from 0 seconds:12 frames to 29 seconds:13 frames as an example for a 30. Trim all your clips to this range, don't even have silent clips hanging over and fade the retuns of any reverb as well, but output the whole file as the full 30 or 15 or whatever, with the 12 frames silence top and tail.

IF you need to know anything else pm me or ask away. Don't compress the life out of it, due to the loudness rules heavily compressed mixes will sound quieter on air. Also make sure your session is at 25 frames per second. Cut all the breaths out of the VO (unlike in music where we want to hear them)
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Re: TV Mastering Levels

Postby Zarven Kara » Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:43 am

Hey thanks guys, I had some info but it's always good to hear from people with some experience. Cheers, Zarv
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