How to record version to -6DB to send to get mastered

[selig]

Does vac-6 vst display true peak?

Yes. It is not computing any kind of average, but keeping the absolute max which I believe is what is called true peak. It is described in the documentation: https://pongasoft.com/vst/VAC-6V.html#technical-details

Yan

"True peak" means the peak level after D/A conversion (simulated in software), while dBFS just means the highest sample level reached. The difference is that "true peak" should account for any possible inter-sample peaks, which becomes important when approaching the clipping point and when dealing with converting audio to fixed point data files (16 or 24 bit files), in most cases mainly when mastering.
Internally you can just use "highest sample" since you're comparing apples to apples, and I think it's still valuable to know the highest sample level since it's something most are familiar with since DAWs have used this measure as "peak" level since day one.

[guitfnky]

not sure why there’s so much hubbub about the mysterious “-6 db” figure. doesn’t much matter, really—the question is easy enough to answer without all the speculation.

for whatever it’s worth, I have seen that figure requested in some of the AI mastering websites, when I needed some quick and dirty demo masters. presumably for the already stated reasons.

need to download that VAC VST today, before I forget. need to set levels on a few more finished tunes in the next few weeks.

[Nerveclinic]

not sure why there’s so much hubbub about the mysterious “-6 db” figure. doesn’t much matter, really—the question is easy enough to answer without all the speculation.

for whatever it’s worth, I have seen that figure requested in some of the AI mastering websites, when I needed some quick and dirty demo masters. presumably for the already stated reasons.

need to download that VAC VST today, before I forget. need to set levels on a few more finished tunes in the next few weeks.

Seriously...download it, it works brilliantly.