Hi my friends, I am happy to be here....

Amr Makki

Member
I am going to record my own songs( Classsical guitar and vocal, sometimes keyboard and vocal) I have scarlett sole package with Cubase element, but I use Audacity, I want to do it very simple as I know I can not do a very professional recording but I want best result I can do.
I tried (for two weeks) but got very confused, shall I use Echo or reverb, what about the setting of effects? the compressor setting for example shall use a threshold near to my top decibles, I keep every thing about 9 decibles when I recording but after mixing it goes to high, and then I normalize it, does my song have distortion this way? should I use compression on each track individually or on all tracks or after mixing them down? a lot a lot of question, can you please help me, can any body communicate with me? I will not bother you for a long time..thanks a lot.:):):)
 
Welcome.
Read ALL the stickies. Study and a lot of your questions will be answered.
Tons of folks here to help, but no one will hold your hand and walk you through step by step
:D
 
Thank you, before I started I red a lot but still confused, yes I am ready to study and do not want to rely upon somebody else, but if I have questions ma I asked them on the forum?
 
So I read the manual on brain surgery once, but strangely, most people I operate on still die. Why could this be?

It's a journey, and a long one. It takes time. But unlike my attempts at brain surgery, no-one needs to die.:D

Firstly, Audacity isn't a multitrack recording program, useful though it is. Secondly, what level are you actually recording at? 9 dB - what does that mean? minus 9 db? which scale? Why are you using a compressor? If you don't know why, you shouldn't use one.

Ask as many questions as you like, but not too many at once - you won't "get" the answers anyway if you try to absorb too much information.
 
Thank you very much...I recorded for tracks, guitar rhythm and guitar solo, two vocals, on every track I tried to make the maximum level around -9 db, and then when I did (mix and render) to export the song the volume got loud and hit the 0db level, is that distortion? did it exceed the 0 db? and if so , can I just normalize it to -3 db for example or use negative amplify? or the distortion has occurred.
Thank you very much, I hope I did not ask a lot of questions, it is my pleasure to have good friend like you...
 
Far better men than I will I am sure be here soon Amr but for now,..
Each track (four?) should be at an average level of -18, even -20dB. They should peak no higher than -8dB or so (I am assuming you are recording at 24 bits?) .
When you have mixed the tracks down to a stereo pair they should/can still be at -6dB(FS) since YOU are not engaged in any MP3 volume war! If things seem a bit quiet, turn up the monitors.

Be assured, once your tracks are "digital" no more noise will be added by changing their levels so keeping things low gives you room to mix better.
Record "clean and dry" i.e. no compression, no verb! Put these on later if you wish.

Stickies yes! Especially find the one from Massive Mastering about levels and calibrating monitors.

Dave.
 
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