When mastering I typically allow no more than 0.3 db Peak.
Can some of you fellow Mastering men tell me your master bus levels ?
 
I know all about Mixdown levels, I typically leave that -4-7 db, leaving headroom for mastering.
but im talking Mastering itself. is you limiter set for 0-5 ? 0.2 ?
 
Thanks my good fellows.
 

Depends. When doing a lossy format like MP3 or AAC, I'd take it down to -1.0 dB, maybe -1.5 dB.
 
Otherwise, I try for as close at possible to 0 while taking the potential for inter-sample distortion into account. -0.3 is probably enough to take care of that, but often you can get by with -0.1. The main thing is never to hit zero because a duplication house won't know whether the 0 is a "real" zero, or a clip. So they'll reject it for being clipped.

-0.3 here, but I rarely, if ever, bother with MP3. Most of my masters are burnt to CD

Typically -0.3 here, too.

I'm still learning, so I'd have to say 'novice'.

I too am in the -0.3 camp for the most part.

great answers gents. I thank you all kindly.
Trying to trace down a distortion issue in one of my Mastering sessions and im looking from all angles.
Mix is fine (db wise) everything else looks great but im willing to bet the client pushed a compressor too hard because I can hear it in the Mixdown,  Then, when you start to master...you know what that's like, a little pimple turns in to a huge wart = Amplified by X10.
Thought I would seek answers on Mastering levels from my good friends here. even though I know that's not the issue, but thinking maybe ive been pushing it too hard all these years. I guess im in the same ballpark as my mates.
 
Craig, the inter-sample distortion is something I have really never paid too much attention to though being intrigued by you bringing it up in your post, I decided to revisit the subject. It's a good read.
Im very glad you mentioned this as its something I never factor but something I will now be more conscious of.  

Bristol_Jonesey
-0.3 here, but I rarely, if ever, bother with MP3. Most of my masters are burnt to CD

rodreb
Typically -0.3 here, too.

tenfoot
I too am in the -0.3 camp for the most part.

Mark me down for -0.3 too.

bapu

Bristol_Jonesey
-0.3 here, but I rarely, if ever, bother with MP3. Most of my masters are burnt to CD

rodreb
Typically -0.3 here, too.

tenfoot
I too am in the -0.3 camp for the most part.

Mark me down for -0.3 too.

Ed the one thing I've been impressed about your Mixes / Masters is the clarity.
you seem to be able to push it hard, yet keep a good dynamic balance. I admire that.

Depends.
 
1. Not all limiters can do -0.1 or -0.3 or even -0.5 without intersample overs. If you don't know for a fact that yours can, you're better off being more conservative. If your limiter doesn't do at least 4x oversampling internally, I'd suggest never going above -1.0 dB.
 
2. If your ultimate target is an MP3, you need to leave even more headroom, regardless of how good your limiter is. To be certain an MP3 won't exceed 0 dB you would have to set your brickwall limit to -3.0 dB. In practice, -1.0 dB will usually be OK, though, except for ultra clean genres such as classical or folk.
 
3. Peak limiting is only indirectly related to perceived volume. It's entirely possible to achieve competitive loudness without exceeding a -1.0 dB maximum peak, or even less. Perceived loudness is all about average RMS, and when you lower your brickwall limit you raise RMS, so sometimes setting a lower limit will actually make your mix sound louder.
 
Since you asked what individuals use, I use -0.1 dB for CDs and -1.0 dB for MP3s. But I do so only because I know with certainty that my limiter is capable of assuring that even intersample peaks won't exceed my given limit.