Settings to sound good!

[pretzston]

hey, I have just got my setup running decently.

before I start laying down any tracks.

are there any settings you guys recommend? anything that i should know about now and would kick myself in a month figuring it out and wishing I knew it now?

Someone mentioned a anti-peak monitor level thing?

anything that will increase the sound quality and am happy to know

[FattMusiek]

What do you intend to record? Hm, "anti-peak levels", go to Options in multitrack view and check "Show levels on Play and Record" to see where you stand peak-wise.

Hope I could be of service.

[mmistudent]

yeah thats a stupid default... I can't think of a situation where you wouldn't want to see your levels

[pretzston]

pretty much intending to record mainly

martin acoustic
male vocals

and then some minimal...

electric guitar cab
female vocal
keyboard (line in)
SOME minimaul percussion (rent some mics)
violin
bass

[Dakota]

Originally posted by mmistudent
yeah thats a stupid default... I can't think of a situation where you wouldn't want to see your levels

Maybe it's default this way to save system resources. I have a slower machine, and I get better results if I do not have live update during record. Shouldn't be a problem with newer machines.

As for sounding good, most important thing to remember is to get a good clean low noise professional recording from the start. If you can get great sounding DRY tracks, you may not need to apply any effects at all.

If the tracks do need treatment, save the original dry tracks. Eq, Compression, and Reverb are the 3 essential effects, try not to use presets. You'll be much more satisfied with the results if you learn what all the controls do for each of the effects, and tailor them for your needs.

Go light with any treatments. There is a tendancy to apply to much reverb and compress too much, and usually, if you back off a little, the end mix will benifit more.

Compress the individual tracks, and not the mix as a whole.