Recording Levels

[Jeroleen]

As I understand it, the goal is to record audio tracks as hot as possible. Is this really the goal.

Also, I record most instruments direct. Synthesizers, samplers and drum machines and loops. Should these be recorded flat.


I understand that the issue of levels and eq has a relation to tape saturation but, when working in the digital domain, how are these things effected.

I think the arrangement itself is important and must be well thought out for the instruments to work together well. Beyond that it is important to get them recorded as clean and full as possible.

Last thought for now. If I want to get the bass and kick to punch and thump a bit more, what are some of the techniques I can use.

[crosstudio]

you still want to record hot so that you use as many of your 24-bits and so that when you mix the overall recording is hot as well.

if its not punchy when you record it, your going to spend ample time trying to make it punchy afterward with additive EQ.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Well... yes and no... yes, recording hot uses the max. bit depth to record the signal, but no - if all your tracks are very "hot", you will quickly run out of headroom at mixdown.

This can occur in either digital or analog mixdown.... in analog, you may simply overload the summing busses in terms of signal level. In digital mixing, you may "run out of bits" in trying to combining many hot signals together at full resolution.

The key is to know what you're recording and what the tracks need to interface with during the next step of mixing.

For a distorted guitar part, you almost don't care if you're using a full 24-bits because the dynamic range of the track is already limited, so the bigger concern becomes how hot that track will be relative to what your mixdown gear expects.

In the 24-bit realm, the old "record hot to maximize bit-depth" really is no longer a concern.

[HangDawg]

I was having trouble in this area as well. I was following the hotter the better rule. Like Blue Bear said, when it came time to mix, I had a hard time because everything was hot and head room was gone. I have since tamed things down during tracking and initial observations have been that things sound way better and its easier to get a track or 2 "punchier" without overloading the mix buss.

[teainthesahara]

Hey Blue Bear (or anyone else who wants to contribute),

I'm limited to recording at 16/44.1 in my current setup. I've been thinking about getting a compressor with a peak limiter in order to record my signals at a more consistent level, and as hot as reasonable. Other than increasing my signal to noise ratio, would using a limter during tracking inherently improve the sound quality in other ways (e.g. - related to the gain settings you can use on the preamp without distorting)? Or is sound quality (other than s/n) independent of how hot you track something?

So, in general, i take it that you might pay more attention to how hot you track something when it has alot of dynamic range (e.g. percussion) but less on instruments/performances that have a limited range in order to faciliate the mixing process? If i interpreted that correctly, does this also hold true for recording and mixing with a 16bit machine? Could you also expand on your statement "The key is to know what you're recording and what the tracks need to interface with during the next step of mixing".

Finally, does it make sense to mix down 16bit recorded tracks to a 24bit format (to increase your head room when mixing down alot of hot tracks, or get better results if one sends it to a mastering house)?

I'd appreciate any help with these questions that ive had swimming in my head over the last week!

Thanks,
T

[TexRoadkill]

Tea- Using a comp/limiter will give you a hotter signal (better SNR) and depending on the comp might give you a 'different' type of sound. Quality can only be acheived through good mics, preamps and convertors. Everything else is simply a bit of spice and a way to color the sound for better or worse.

Your goal during mixdown should be to do nothing. If you did your tracking job perfectly you could raise all the faders to unity, print a mixdown and call it a day. In real life that never happens but the closer you can get to that the better. That applies to EQ, volume and dynamic range.

It does make sense to mixdown at a higher bitrate because the advantages are a lower noise floor on the mixdown format and greater detail in reverb tails. It also allows the mastering house to process the signal at a higher resolution.

[teainthesahara]

Thanks for the comments Tex!