Proper broadcast audio levels for Betacam SP tape?

Hi.

I've got a project that requires me to export a video onto a Betacam SP cassette for television broadcast. I've got no problem with video levels, but as far as audio goes...

If a -12dB tone in FCP is my reference level and the Beta deck will be calebrated to reflect 0VU when the -12dB tone is fed to it, what should my audio range be within FCP? What is the absolute loudest I can get on the Beta deck? What's the loudest it should go in FCP? Do you have any Beta-FCP audio tips for a newbie? Are there any FCP db-to-Sony Betacam VU conversion tables out there? I want to make sure my levels are as loud as possible without running the risk of distortion or station rejection (in other words, I'd like the loudness of my project to stack up with everything else on TV).

I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks, TonyT

Pull the knobs (in the case of the larger machines) or turn the record knobs in the case of an 1800 until the -12 tone is at zero VU. The show, if you did it right, should be roughly in the middle of the meter with possible brief excursions into the red.

Here's a video of me doing that.

[www.kozco.com]

Stay with it, it's gets louder near the end. If you put this track on your DV timeline, it will also tell you where the DV levels should be for a proper show.

Koz

Nice demo, Koz.

<<<Nice demo, Koz.>>>

Thanx,

You're supposed to complain that the file size is too big. It is. I could have done a number of things to reduce the datarate and may yet.

I can't skip frames for higher compression. The whole idea is to transmit exactly what the meter sees during the show. Thank goodness the meters on that tape machine are gas discharge and don't flicker. That would have been a nightmare.

I would have killed to get a real analog meter as part of the demo, but that was not to be.

I shot that after about the five hundredth forum battle over where DV sound levels should be. If you're translating to grown up tape machines, that's pretty much where.

You have no idea how much chocolate is necessary to make the tape operators "look the other way."

"Koz? Nope. Haven't seen him. Somebody said they saw him down at the loading dock."

Koz

>>You have no idea how much chocolate is necessary to make the tape operators "look the other way." <<

Heh. I've seen tapes arriving with Mars Bars sticky taped to the top. I didn't realise this was an international thing, though.

The file isn't too big, I don't think. If you want good free help you should allow for it to take some time to happen. Good, cheap, slow, as opposed to good, fast, expensive, or bad, cheap, fast.

One downside though, I was just downloading the digibeta one this morning, and set it off in the background and started answering emails, and all of a sudden I could hear tone. This freaked me out somewhat, since my system is all off. I was sittng here looking at all my equipment going.. that's not possible.. where the hell is the tone coming from? I even stood up, walked over to my speaker and put my hand on it to confim that it was coming from my suite.

And then Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy began... Ha! Funny.

A root.
A toot.
A roodliota toodliota.
Eight to the bar.

That's another place to economise. You don't need three minutes to get this idea across and it should be evener. Anyone who doesn't stay to the end will not get the "red peak" on the VU meter.

I wonder who I know that has a PPM. You don't count. Too many time zones.


Oh, well. A great work is never completed, only abandoned.

My house must be a crashing great work.

Koz