Recording Levels

lordbodom

New member
Have a question about input levels for recording. I mostly record guitars and have a lexicon lambda interface. The interface has a monitor mix level which allows to mix the levels of the input level vs. playback. should this normally be around 50/50? Will boosting either side up affect how something is recorded and affect the level? Also, when should i increase the input level vs. overall volume level to figure?

Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance.
 
Set the recording level, the input level on the channel, so that a sustained distorted power chord sits around -18dbfs on the input meter in the daw.

The monitor level does not affect the recording level, it only adjusts the volume of whaf you hear in the headphones. Set it so you can hear a good mix of you and the backing track.
 
Do you really need the hardware monitoring? Can you not get low enough latency to just monitor through the DAW? Most decent machines can nowadays.

Adjust input levels only ever in order to get decent levels "to tape". Most people will shoot for -18dbfs average like Farview said, but honestly it's not that critical with 24 bit. Anywhere short of clipping usually works, and averages down even at -30 or so isn't going to hurt anything. I personally never touch the input gain on my interface but just set it to unity and take what I get.

Don't try to use that knob to make what you're hearing through your speakers/headphones louder. Use your DAW's mixer and speaker/headphone volumes for that.
 
Do you really need the hardware monitoring? Can you not get low enough latency to just monitor through the DAW? Most decent machines can nowadays.
Not to change the subject, but why would you not use the hardware monitoring?
 
Not to change the subject, but why would you not use the hardware monitoring?
Because why would you? I guess in my case I kind of can't use hardware monitoring most of the time because I use a lot of amp sims and other DAW based effects. More than that, though, hardware monitoring is crude - one crossfade knob, no panning or EQ or even routing options - and/or requires dicking around with the interface's own proprietary mix/route software which can and will override what the DAW is trying to do with the inputs and outputs and will probably need to be changed back when you go to mix and you could just do all of that in your DAW (unless it sucks) and not have to use that other software at all.
 
Im so new at this i dont even know what hardware monitoring is. I have a lexicon lambda. was jsut referring to the mix knob on there for input vs playback levels.

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That is hardware monitoring. The interface is mixing the analog input with the output from the DAW. That's opposed to software monitoring where you basically set that knob to 100% computer, and listen to your input after its gone through your DAW along with the rest of the mix. You usually have to enable that on the track you're recording to somehow so that it passes the input to the output, but it gives you a lot more control over what you actually hear.
 
You'll want to do one or the other 100% software or hardware, in my experience it always sounds horrible mixing the two.

I usually use hardware monitoring because theres less chance of something going wrong. My way is going into a direct box one line goes into interface and the other goes to amp then I put effects on the originally recorded dry signal after I'm finished recording. For vox we do hardware with headphones.

Why?...because a couple of times I've had a huge project played guitar in time and on playback the guitar was out of time. All I had to do was move the track to the correct place, but annoying nevertheless. So then I had to fix this problem and after a few days of dorking out, this was the solution for logic 9, your DAW will be different. But some of the concepts should apply

1)Buffer set to 128
2)Compensation set to all
3)then I had to adjust the "recording delay" slider in logic because manufactures don't always give the right number to "apple" in my case. Which involves (I still have to do this on occasion especially for driver updates) recording a click from DAW (with Mic) at listening position and then lining that recording up with the grid. Which is something you should check if you feel your recordings might be out of time on playback, whilst using software monitoring.
4)make sure to click the low latency button and don't have any plugs on the master output


The faster you play the more you'll notice... if you have a problem

It really all does come down to your workflow and what will work for you. This is just some advice. Hardware monitoring usually eliminates most timing problems.
YMMV
Hope this helps.

Note- software monitoring is currently working for me. But it seems to never fail recording someone else, something goes wrong.
 
I use hardware monitoring exclusively (except whilst using MIDI instruments, but that's a different story) and always have. I run things out and through a 16 channel desk (Soundcraft GB2R 16) from where I can mix incoming and outgoing with ease (that is, the monitor signals--the actual audio that I'm monitoring goes in through an Audient asp 880, into an E-Mu 1010) and it sounds great and is versatile as hell. This wasn't always the case, but I love the current setup. It's reliable and intuitive. I've got the machine and the DAW (Dell with i7, Samplitude Pro X 2) to go with software monitoring, but the tiniest bit of latency drives me nuts, and I figured long ago, why mess around with it? Someday I likely will use software to monitor, but not right now.
 
. . . same goes for our practice/recording space, where the Scarlett 18i20's analog outs are routed through a couple of mixers and a patch bay to give 5 performers their own mix. I wouldn't even attempt a software monitor here, what with 12 mics and 5 line level inputs going into the laptop, an Asus with an i5 processor.
 
Yup. I use hardware monitoring exclusively to--for small stuff it's easy just to twist the knob on my interface and for complicated stuff via my mixer (which goes into my computer via ADAT/Firewire) I can have up to 8 Aux mixes to give the performers a good choice of mixes.
 
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