snow lizard
Dedicated Slacker
LazerBeakShiek said:Well at -18 it will be much quieter. Opposed to -6. Perhaps there will not be as much of the static .
What is this baking?
Playing it back at higher volume?
Basically, sort of.
So we need this thing called "headroom" over the +4 analog average line level as a place for the peaks to sit. If you clip (distort) the analog side of your signal through your mic preamp or converters before it gets to digital, that distortion gets baked in. Even if the digital signal doesn't go over 0 dBFS. It would be like recording a raging Marshall Plexi with the "Brown Sound" or whatever. Distorted guitar. Very cool. So after we record that sound can we take that guitar track and process it so it's clean? Maybe more like a Fender Twin?
No. We can't. That's the sound. It's baked in.
The Loudness Wars were (I'm hoping it's over now...) a thing where every record label wanted every one of their CD's to be louder than everyone elses CD's. Since you can't go over 0 dBFS without harsh, nasty digital clipping, they started using ungodly amounts of compression and limiting to reduce the dynamic range and increase the RMS loudness at the expense of good sound. Vapour Trails by Rush is an example of a record with absolutely hideous sonics becuase they made it way too loud. You can hear cymbals clipping all over the place. The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips is an example of a CD with a huge RMS level and almost no dynamics, but the illusion of dynamics. Californication and Deaf Magnetic are other records where they chose "loud" over "good".
These are extreme examples, but the point is tracking loud doesn't buy you anything. It's more likely to cost you something. Even if you want to make it loud at the end of the process. The cleaner your tracks are to begin with, the more punishment they will be able to withstand.
So if you're at home with your DAW tracking at line level like you should, you might notice it's nowhere near as loud as a commerical CD release. That's okay. If you clip your preamp or converters on the way in, you can't get rid of the crap it might leave on your signal. Especially if you're using something like a USB powered interface. Headroom matters, and those devices don't have the most headroom.
Digital audio doesn't have a sweet spot. It's harder to track too low than it is to track too hot. The sound doesn't change much until you run into distortion, clipping and aliasing from being too hot. If you have to turn up a track that was recorded clean, it will still be clean. If you have to turn down a track that has unintentional distortion from overcooking the levels, it will still be distorted.