Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 840)

Chapter 4 Audio Levels, Meters, and Output Channels 53
I
Analog Versus Digital Meters
The way you set your levels with a digital meter is different from the way you’d set
levels on an analog meter. Compare a traditional analog audio meter with one of the
digital audio meters in Final Cut Pro:
A digital meter displays the sample values of a digital audio signal. The scale on the
meter is known as digital full scale, or dBFS. On this scale, 0 dBFS represents the highest
possible sample value. Any samples above 0 dBFS are clipped, distorting the original
shape of the audio waveform. Once a signal is clipped, the original shape of the
waveform cannot be recovered.
Generic
VU meter
Final Cut Pro
audio meters
-30
-20
-10
-7
-4
-2
0
+2
+4
+7
- ∞
-66
-36
-24
-18
-12
-6
0
-48
Original
0 dBFS 0 dBFS 0 dBFS
Too much gain
causes clipping Clipping remains
after gain is reduced