Analogue gear provides at least 20 dB of headroom above 0 VU; digital systems clip hard at 0 dBFS with no equivalent safety margin

On professional analogue gear, 0 VU corresponds to +4 dBu, and there is typically 20 dB or more of headroom before electrical clipping — signals peaking well above 0 VU cause no problems, and hard peaks are ‘gracefully’ clipped with harmonic distortion. Digital systems work differently: 0 dBFS is an absolute ceiling, and exceeding it produces anharmonic distortion that sounds harsh. The analogy to analogue practice is that a DAW channel reading -12 to -18 dBFS is broadly equivalent to 0 VU on an analogue console — preserving the same 20 dB safety buffer in digital terms.

Examples

A snare peak that reads +6 VU on an analogue console is fine; the same relative level reading +6 dBFS on a DAW meter would be clipped and distorted.

Assessment

If 0 VU on a professional analogue console = +4 dBu with 20+ dB headroom, what is the equivalent target peak level on a DAW sample-peak meter that preserves the same headroom margin?