Question

I set up my home studio and calibrated my monitors. I work with both studio one 4 and pro tools. Being that I have more experience in Pro Tools I used it for the calibration. Pink noise at -20 dB and SPL meter C-Weighted. Once I was done in Pro Tools I switched to Studio one to verify the level. Upon doing so I found SO4 output to read a whole 10 dB less than Pro Tools (per SPL meter). Which makes a HUGE difference with mixing and mastering. Session parameters were the same 24/48 with signal generator outputing pink noise at -20 dB. The hardware is an iMac, HiSierra w/ silver apollo thunderbolt, Yamaha HS5 with HS8S sub. The SPL meter never moved from listening position. Does anyone have an idea as to why this is possible? Is it a setting that i may not know about? Any input is appreciated!

Answer 1

Are you using a "pink noise at -20dBC" WAV file in each DAW?

I'd start by verifying each step in the signal path starting with the track with the WAV file and make sure the output of each step is -20dBC.  I'm assuming you've already made sure everything is at unity.

You'll want to follow these steps in both PT and SO4 (maybe PT is not at unity?)

1. The clip itself - it's really easy to raise and lower the pre-fader level of a WAV file (grab the black box in the middle and drag up/down)
2. The track - if the clip is mono, is the track set to mono or stereo interleave?  Granted, this is typically only 3dB difference.
3. The main bus - what does it show?

Steven