>>> I used to leave 2 -3 dB, but the mastering engineer I use now says >>> not to bother. >> >> I can think of two reasons: >> He finally got a compressor ;-) > > You mean he finally got an input gain knob? > > I have always found it totally nonsensical when people say you have > to leave XX amount of head room for the mastering guy. > > He can turn up or down the input to his processors just like anybody > else. > The problem is when you have overloads and whole mixes that are flat- topped. I see this all the time. If people were using sensible levels and Logic's meters weren't scaled so weirdly, this would not be an issue. For comparison, the level out of the average analog console to tape is about -18 to -12 dBfs. Mars PS - Google "Bob Katz K14 Metering" when you get a chance...