Question about optimal levels in VCC

[efx]

Hi, I have a question regarding what levels to feed VCC in its default state and while I know to use my ears to judge I was interested in whether my understanding of how it's calibrated is right. I searched around a lot for something that would be similar to my "issue" and while I've learned a lot from it I thought I'd ask specifically here as well.

I've read that feeding VCC something that sits at around -18 rms level should basically have the VU meter in VCC hover around 0 with the default calibration but when I do this with some pink noise that has an rms level of -18 and peak levels of -6 I find that it hovers around +3 on the VU meter.

Again, I could always trim the signal going in but I was curious as to why it seems off and since it's probably a user error I'd be a learning experience to know why.

Thanks in advance

 

[RiF]

Yes, -18 dBFS (FS as in Full Scale which is the full digital scale, not RMS which is "root mean square", a way to measure the average loudness ) is the right level that should go into VCC (or any other analog modelled plugin). The proper way would be to use a 1 KHz sine wave which should read 0 dBVU on the VCC meter if it's running at -18 dBFS.
Pink noise is pretty random in level and frequency and will not give you a constant meter reading. Try the single frequency and constant level sine wave and you will see 0 dBVU in VCC.
In the real world, you'll probably will not deal with sine waves too much and therefore I would calibrate the level (using a Trim or Gain plugin before VCC for example) by simply looking at the VCC meter and adjusting the level until it reads something around 0 dBVU.
Hope that helps.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

The VCC also has adjustable sensitivity and clipping threshold controls, so it's not going to be a perfect 1:1 -18dbfs = 0 on the VCC meter. But generally speaking, if you DAW is reading -18dbfs, it should come up around there, give or take, on the VCC, which has been my experience. Except on the master bus, obviously.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Depends on how much coloration you want from it. It soft clips at +12dBFS (IIRC) so you can set the calibration lower you can get that effect without cranking the input.

 

[efx]

Fantastic, thanks for the answers guys! Informative as all hell! This was something that I had trouble wrapping my head around but now I get it !

 

[melovine]

Very helpful!

 

[HOFX]

The way I gain stage through VCC Channel is by adjusting to get 0 dB on the VCC meter.

Interesting that Slate says when he goes through the mix buss he "pins the meters on the Brit 4K" VCC Buss.

 

[melovine]

What do you mean by "pin the meter"?

 

[HOFX]

Volume is sufficiently high that the meter stays at the maximum position.