gents, ponder this. first i hate bad math, especially when used arbitrarily, and without bit-clean tests to verify the process works without errors. i'm talking about Normalization, Leveling and what have you. to me the best normalization (i hate that word too) would have a left-bitshift or right-bitshift followed by a an offset of (x) dB to achieve -24LKFS, undithered. of course gain is done in a single multiply, but conceptually, i like the left/right shift like Sonic used to have. this speaks to the issue of why some normalization routines are different, better, sound-wise and transparency-wise. we can't see the math DAW people put into the product on most DAWs. the proposal is this: -24dBLKFS basically will completely honor the crest factor of the best analog tape, (interestingly so would setting the referenced +4 (0VU) to -20dBFS) it would make all archives compatible with broadcast/netcast/youtube (that's a wish)/... and remove intermediary steps for derivative access copies. ya know, there's a volume control on every device. although i understand the convenience to the client, without completely unattended batch processing, you will wind up burning human time doing something that will be louder than broadcast standards, softer than commercial CDs, and sits in yet another amplitude universe. at least it would match the one standard that is available as opposed to having varying levels for access copies. of course i absolutely see Karl's point on changing derivative access reference levels in some cases. i ask "is it possible that we can just use A85 and stop there", have a standard playback level, completely avoid limiting, reduce humantime and eliminate differences between access copies. to restate it, for years i've thought we should make a digital standard that is *based* on analog tape. we did that to some degree with +4=-20dBFS. The 1770 gives us a clear opportunity to make an archive without any worry about peaks whatsoever, no need for subsequent derivative alterations *except* going from the master captured file (9632 A85 wav for example) down to an mp3 for the client. seva sequoyahstudios.com linkedin profile <https://www.linkedin.com/in/seva-david-louis-ball-434700/> portfolio <http://www.davidlouisball.com/>