Recording Levels in DAW's

themdla said:
i have recently been recording 44.1khz @ 16-bit. although i can record as high as 96khz @ 24-bit. i've always been confused about dithering and started tracking at 44.1 @ 16-bit to remove the need (i'm not sure if that's really correct though). also my drum samples/vst are easier to deal with (in terms of processing) at 44 16.
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If anything, record at 44.1 24bit. The processing to go from 24 to 16 bit is much simpler than going from 96 to 44.1.


Anyway, here is a simple guide to recording levels:

*Record your drums to peak at about -10 to -15.
*Record everything else at a level that sounds correctly mixed with your drums.


It's that simple. The goal is to have a song that has no instruments that are glaringly loud or quiet before you even start mixing. Do that correctly and headroom will never be a problem. Keep in mind that some tracks will "look" disturbingly low. Keep in mind also that eyes have nothing to do with any of this so don't worry what the wavs look like.
 
themdla said:
so if i can maintain an RMS level around -18dbFS, +/- 4db. anything that peaks above that could be corraled by compression,
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I only record myself, so this only applies to me...

But if I was recording something that peaks more than 18 dbs above the average volume, I'd stop recording, practice the part some more, and come back later to track it.
 
TripleM said:
I only record myself, so this only applies to me...

But if I was recording something that peaks more than 18 dbs above the average volume, I'd stop recording, practice the part some more, and come back later to track it.
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That is definitely NOT what I am saying...

I was saying that -18dbFS is RMS, and then you can add in some dynamics (+ 5 to 10db).

if something peaks above the collective value of both ( around -13 to -8db ) then those peaks could be handled by a compressor with a threshold set in the neighborhood of -13 to -8db.
 
themdla said:
That is definitely NOT what I am saying...

I was saying that -18dbFS is RMS, and then you can add in some dynamics (+ 5 to 10db).

if something peaks above the collective value of both ( around -13 to -8db ) then those peaks could be handled by a compressor with a threshold set in the neighborhood of -13 to -8db.
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... ... ... I don't think you quite understand how large a 10 db increase is. Maybe you'd get a spike 10 db above the rest if a car came crashing through your wall in the middle of a take. The only reason you ever have a spike 5 or 10 db up is if you intend to. And if you intended to, you wouldn't even it out later. Which brings me to...

...music is supposed to have peaks. Why do you want it even so badly?
 
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