Walk me through the very first steps

[A1A2]

As I turned the gain nob on my Mackie, I asked myself, "Do I want it all the way to the right (loudest)?"

Then I looked at the master faders and fader for that channel, I asked again, "If gain nob stays all the way right, do I pull the faders down or turned gain nob counter-clockwise until no clipping?" (barely any noticable noise increase even when gain nob turned up all the way)

Opened Audiophile's mixer, I thought, " Great...2 more faders(ch. fader&master) to worry about..."

Then, opened my sequencer and realized that, what wasn't clipping in Audiophile's mixer, is now clipping...

What are the steps you take to get the hottest signal w/out clipping (of course) starting from the pre?

thank you very much

AL

[Blue Bear Sound]

The Mackie manual CLEARLY outlines the process for optimizing your gain on each channel..................

(or did you want me to re-type it for you here!?!?!)

And no... you DEFINITELY don't want the trim pots turned fully clockwise (er, to the right).....!

Bruce

[A1A2]

Bruce:

No, no, please don't re-type! lol
I just pulled out my manual and it's on the FIRST page! I really need to pull out all my manuals before I post on this site again

thanks, bruce

[Track Rat]

RTFM

[Dom Franco]

It's not just your mixer!

Look at your whole recording setup. (The signal chain)

If you overdrive any unit you will get distortion or "Clipping"

For example if you run a mic preamp, through a compressor then an effect unit from an aux send etc...

At every in and out you should monitor the level.. Is it clipping Red Light!.. or too low (extra noise instead of signal)

I was hearing some distortion the other day during a mix down and then I looked over at the rack and realised I was overloading the input to my effects unit! You have to keep an eye on all the levels, all the way to the tape or CD burner that you are mixing down to.

Sincerely;

Dom