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Great read - "Proper Audio Recording Levels"

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great read
5K views 30 replies 13 participants last post by  JBroll 
#1 ·
Proper Audio Recording Levels | Rants, Articles | My MASSIVE Blog

I've been thinking a lot about this ever since I read it a couple weeks ago, and the guy seems to be on to something - mixes do seem a little cleaner if you track at a lower level and make it up after the fact, rather than try to come in at -3 to -6db and maybe cut things down a little afterwards.

Food for thought.
 
#4 ·
That was a pretty good read. I had been starting to figure some of this out myself, but it's nice to see it written and explained like that.



That's what I had thought, too. The signal:noise ratio was the main reason I figured it would be a better idea to record hotter. Things still seem to mesh better with lower levels, though, and since I record digitally through S/PDIF, I'm not sure how much it affects the signal:noise ratio anyway.
 
#11 ·
Read it. His point, which from what little experimentation I've done seems valid, is that not only do you need to ensure that you're not clipping when you record, but you also need to pay attention to the ideal dynamic ranges of all of the analog gear you're using - if most of your pres are designed to take a signal at -18dbfs, and you're consistently exceeding that by a solid margin even if you're still not clipping, then you begin to induce mild saturation and coloration from your gear into the signal, which negatively impacts both the dynamic range of what's hitting the D/A converters, but also impacts the percieved "clarity" of the signal, in turn.

This guy masters for a living, and I think his opening comment was telling - that the mixes he's seen, with regards to dynamic range and "clarity" fall into three buckets; the work of total noobs which sounds clear and is relativtely easy to master because they don't have enough rope to hang themselves, to steal his phrase, "pros" with tons of experience who know their shit cold and are producing great products, and then the intermediate range, where you have guys who have a lot of experience but for some reason almost without exception their mixes are coming out dynamically constrained and muddy sounding.

Eleven, anecdotally- you commented that the mix I'd posted sounded "busy." It has no more instrumentation than something I did later that afternoon, but I tracked it a couple db quieter, remembering this article, and the results sounded much "open"-er. That's obviously not the same sort of scientific double-blind comparison he's advocating, but my ears told me I was getting better results by keeping the signal lower.
 
#19 ·
You know, I'm pretty new to the recording thing, and what Drew's O.P. was getting at seems to be true in my limited experience. Personally, I don't like to compress up the ass when I put things down so there's a lot of dynamics there, and therefore I find it advantageous to turn down and leave some headroom. Then compress and EQ after the fact.
 
#20 ·
I find that using impulses is a treat to dance around the volume issue.

When I used to record my guitars with the podxt I had to have it at a certain level on input to avoid clipping, which meant turning everything else down a couple db to compensate, and i found that getting volume out of it in the mastering phase was difficult without having to face a clipping issue again.

But with impulses, you're recording a very quiet signal with your preamp. The volume comes from the nature of the impulse itself once it's loaded onto the track, especially if you have a decent plug-in for it.

Now, I can very easily get a mix that's as loud as a pro mastered CD, but without having to squish the shit out of it and lose dynamics
 
#21 ·
When I used to record my guitars with the podxt I had to have it at a certain level on input to avoid clipping, which meant turning everything else down a couple db to compensate, and i found that getting volume out of it in the mastering phase was difficult without having to face a clipping issue again.
I have NO idea what you just said there, but something tells me you're doing something else wrong if you were having volume issues.
 
#24 ·
Yeah, I get ya. Well, this was only on tracking, rarely after. I knew that if it was after it was a mix problem, as you say, not a signal problem.

But like i said, i dont have the problem any more. Not just because I use impulses now, but because i have a podxt pro, which, for some reason, lets me record quite hot even when using the pod tones without impulses. So maybe it was a problem with my old pod? Not sure, all I know is I don't have that problem anymore, with or without impulses. I just use impulses now because i think they sound 100 times better than the line6 cab sims, not just so I can squeeze extra volume from my tracks! I believe it was you who once said you'd prefer a quiet track with dynamics than a loud one that sounds like ass, and i stand by that too :yesway:
 
#25 ·
not just so I can squeeze extra volume from my tracks!
Well, I guess where I was going with this was, the only way that could possibly be true is if the impulse files give you a significantly different dynamic response than the Pod sims. I.e - they're more compressed, so the difference between your peaks and the body of your guitar is less. If that's the case, then you're still compressing your guitar, you're just doing it in a different way.

Totally a moot point, though, as the big question is whether or not it sounds good, and you seem happy. :lol:
 
#26 ·
I am indeed! Even though it's still using the podxt preamp, the impulses give it such a more natural mic'd feel than the line6 cab sims ever will. The way it hits your ears is just so much more natural and "pro" sounding. Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread haha.
 
#30 ·
so in cubase, they dont really show the -db levels, so i was curious, what should your wave form look like? of course you dont want clipping peaks, but how much space do you really want between the peaks and the clip, 1/4 the size of the entire wave form box, 1/8, does it really matter if your not clipping?

as for the original article, i find that its almost a necesity for me to record at a lower volume with my mesa/sm57. If i crank it up much, its like what was mentioned before, a total hiss fest.
 
#31 ·
The box appearance depends on too many things. Just aim to have a little bit of headroom (your DAW will be able to roughly tell you the 'peak volume' of a whole track)... I usually wind up around -6 or -12 for the 'peak' (which of course depends on too many things, but not as much as visually inspecting the waveform - long story short, don't do that) but you can go lower without losing much.

Jeff
 
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