Setting Levels for Analoque board/Pro Tools?

[BJohnston]

Just wondering how to set levels for Pro Tools from the board using the Tone Generator from the board. I've never done this before. I've heard of setting up the VU's on the board to hit Hotter so that the board works harder. I've got an Amek with pre-amp chips. I don't know whether that should still apply or not? If so what's the step by step? Thanks in advance.

BJohnston

[Family Hoof]

I don't have a lot of experience doing this but I'll take a stab.

With all your faders at unity (0) hit the 1kHz button and and the VUs should read 0VU. If not, move the faders to compensate. 0VU is usually calibrated with internal pots to read 0 at +4dBm. To double check, measure 1.23VAC across pins 2 and 3 of the balanced output jack from a channel. In pro tools TDM there's a calibration reference level under preferences and this is set anywhere between -12 and -20 depending on your tastes and how much headroom you want to give yourself. There's also a calibration mode which is what you engage to have all channels monitor the 1kHz at the A/D inputs from the console. This will show you what that 0VU equals in dBFS.

The whole goal here is that you want 0VU to equal a value much less than 0dBFS (red light comes on in the pro tools meter) so that you have headroom. If you use all the red space above 0VU on your VU meters (of course you do, there's probably 20dBm more!) then you want Pro Tools to allow for thi and not clip. It's better to think of -14ddBFS, for example, on the pro tools meters to be the same as 0VU in this manner.

I know this explanation sucks and probably needs some tweaking so wait for a few other people to respond if it doesn't work out.