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Last month, we talked about audio and sound levels as they occur at the beginning of the recording process. Now I’d like to look at the other end of the process: playback levels in the control room, including management of the monitor section of the console, the power amp and the speakers, as well as a consideration of what happens when your recording is played over a variety of playback systems.

Careful management of these levels and maintaining rigorous control of each stage is really essential if you want to get get consistently good results. This level management isn’t trivial – there’s a lot going on physically, psychologically and musically during mixdown and remix, and good levels are a key ingredient in creating a successful mix.

The end of the chain.

Take a look at the end of the audio signal flow, shown below. The output of the stereo bus goes through the master level fader to the main meters and to the recorder. It also goes, in parallel to the recorder feed, through the monitor level to the power amps, monitors and on through air to the listener.

	Typical audio flow of monitor system (not including monitor selection switching). I’m assuming the power amps have enough power and are turned up all the way.

The master level fader is used to establish the desired level for the recorder, and it is this level that is shown on the meters. Following this in the flow, the monitor level adjusts the level of the speakers to be at a satisfactory level (whatever that means) for production work.

Two things about mixing: first, the master level should never be used to adjust playback level and second, once the monitor level is set at its proper and satisfactory level, it should never be touched (well, hardly ever).

The problem of the end-user

Meanwhile, we’ve got to think ahead to what levels the people who are going to be listening to our work will be using, and to what sort of playback systems they’ll be using. Our consideration of that range of possibilities should have a significant effect on how we approach the levels and range of our mix.