I think I'm running everything too hot in Pro Tools

[13eastie]

Hi,

If this sounds stupid, please accept my apologies - this is all rather new to me.

I've just started doing some home recording with Pro Tools LE using an MBox2.

I'm recording guitar via an attenuated Marshall Class 5 (i.e. not very loud) with a Shure SM57 connected to the MBox.

I've noticed that clean tones were buzzing, and had put it down to my headphones, but today I got a pair of Beyerdynamic DT100's and the problem is still (in fact, more) noticeable.

My guess is that I'm running everything way too hot (my bench-mark is basically just to avoid getting any red lights).

But if this is the cause and I just turn things down a bit, I'm left with the issue is that I'm not getting enough volume through the headphones with lower input gains.

(No, I do not have any known problem with my hearing!).

I'd be very grateful for any pointers on the best way to deal with this - the amp in the room sounds fantastic, even if I say so myself. I know that my mic and cans are solid, so I'm getting ready to write Pro Tools and MBox off!

Cheers.

 

[RAMI]

All you have to do is turn up your monitors or headphones. You shouldn't be recording ANYWHERE NEAR clipping levels. Get an average of around -12 to -16, with your peaks at around -6 and you should be fine. There's absolutely no reason to record anywhere near what would be described as "hot". Yes, your recordings will be way lower than commercial CD's, but that' something you take care of in the mastering phase, not the mixing phase, and certainly not in the tracking phase.

 

[13eastie]

All you have to do is turn up your monitors or headphones. You shouldn't be recording ANYWHERE NEAR clipping levels. Get an average of around -12 to -16, with your peaks at around -6 and you should be fine. There's absolutely no reason to record anywhere near what would be described as "hot". Yes, your recordings will be way lower than commercial CD's, but that' something you take care of in the mastering phase, not the mixing phase, and certainly not in the tracking phase.

Thanks for the reply. It's not quite as simple as you suggest for the reason that I do need to hear my track through my closed-back monitor headphones above the sound of the amp.

 

[RAMI]

Thanks for the reply. It's not quite as simple as you suggest for the reason that I do need to hear my track through my closed-back monitor headphones above the sound of the amp.

Dude, anyone that makes good recordings records at or around the levels I described. Can you not turn up your headphones??? If they're full and still not loud enough, then think about getting a headphone amplifier. But, right now you're sacrifciing sound quality for monitoring level. You need to find a way to record lower, it's as simple as that.

 

[benherron.rrr]

As RAMI says, its deffinatly not worth sacrificing the quality of the recording for the sake of monitoring. Have you tried getting all the levels set, then turn up the volume for your head phones, if you need a little more you could hitch up the faders in protools, as that should give you a little extra volume. As far as I know, moving the faders in your DAW only effects the playback volume, not the input volume. or at least it works like that in cubase.

 

[Chibi Nappa]

Get some Extreme Isolation headphones or something like that. Mine cut off the outside world very well, and I can easily hear quiet monitoring volumes. Waaaaaaay more noise blockage than regular close-back headphones. They are more like strap-on hearing protection with built-in headphone elements.


But I doubt that is your main problem. I suggested it purely to save your ears. Loud headphone monitoring is a killer.

No, you need to find out why your headphone volume is so low. I can record guitars that peak around -10 and still have them so loud in the headphones that nobody can stand it.

As a last resort, strap a compressor/limiter onto your monitoring channel ONLY. That will push up the 'phone mix while leaving the recorded signal untouched.