Audio Headroom Calculator
Headroom, crest factor, the noise floor of a given bit depth and how much of the available range a recording actually uses.
Results
Headroom
17.000
dB
Crest factor
13.000
dB
Dynamic range of that bit depth
146.255
dB
Noise floor
-146.255
dBFS
Range the recording uses
145.255
dB
Peak as a fraction of full scale
0.891251
The same as a percentage
89.125
%
Levels available
16,777,216
How that headroom looks
Plenty — 12 dB or more
What this tool does
Headroom is the space you leave above where you are working, and it is not wasted: it is what a transient falls into instead of clipping. Crest factor is the same distance measured from the average rather than the target, and it tells you what kind of material you have — a few decibels for a compressed mix, fifteen or twenty for an orchestra. Twenty-four bits give 146 dB of range, far more than any room is quiet enough to use, which is why recording conservatively costs nothing.
Formula
headroom = peak − nominal · crest factor = peak − RMS · dynamic range of n bits = 6.02 n + 1.76 dB
Variables
| Symbol | Meaning | Unit |
|---|---|---|
pk | Peak level | dBFS |
nm | Nominal working level | dBFS |
rm | RMS level | dBFS |
bd | Bit depth | — |
HR | Headroom | dB |
CF | Crest factor | dB |
DR | Dynamic range of that bit depth | dB |
NF | Noise floor | dBFS |
US | Range the recording uses | dB |
PR | Peak as a fraction of full scale | — |
PC | The same as a percentage | % |
LV | Levels available | — |
OK | How that headroom looks | — |
Worked example
- Peak level-1 dBFS
- Nominal working level-18 dBFS
- RMS level-14 dBFS
- Bit depth24
- Headroom17.000 dB
- Crest factor13.000 dB
- Dynamic range of that bit depth146.255 dB
- Noise floor-146.255 dBFS
- Range the recording uses145.255 dB
- Peak as a fraction of full scale0.891251
- The same as a percentage89.125 %
- Levels available16,777,216
- How that headroom looksPlenty — 12 dB or more
Limitations
- The calculation runs at full precision and only the display is rounded. If you copy an intermediate value and retype it, small differences can appear.