Nick Lowe reports on an informal AMPS meeting at Twickenham
A lively meeting was held on this subject at Twickenham Film Studios on 2nd September 1994, many a red herring was explored in depth and considerable polemic erupted over the issue of whether floor mixers or transfer bay staff should have the responsibility of controlling the (some would say) excessive dynamic range offered by digital recorders. A vote to lumber the floor mixers with this was passed pretty well nem con.
On a more serious note two important recommendations arose from the meeting, Firstly that all those using digital recorders should have their internal D to A and A to D converters calibrated such that -18 dB full scale (i.e. -18 on the digital meter) should read 0 dB analogue. Secondly that floor mixers should then strive to 'peak' their levels no higher than 10 dB above this (i.e. peak at -8 dB full scale).
I very much doubt this will be the end of this issue but these recommendations may go some way to achieving compatibility between location sound rushes shot on DAT machines/Nagra Ds and those shot on conventional Nagras.
Reducing the dynamic range of digital recordings does not eliminate their two principal advantages over analogue; complete lack of tape hiss and the ability to record truly continuous timecode.