Using a compressor as limiter for master?

[mesaboogie5050]

Yes, I am using TRS cables. Which is the only way to do it on the saffire because inputs 3-8 to by pass the pre amp you have to use TRS. If you use XLR it will turn the pre amps on. Except on 1 and 2.

I can't tell a noise level difference when I was messing with it. It just simply sounded like one was louder than the other. But I was trying it with an electric guitar, so it wasn't the best test. It just seems like -10 is easier. To know that 0VU is -18. 0vu on my meters on +4 is going a little over -12. So 0vu is very close to yellow and I don't want that. Because when I mix it, I won't have the headroom I want and when I put all the instruments together my master fader will start clipping.

I'm gonna have to figure out a way to record soft acoustic guitar parts without all the noise. I turn the air conditioning off and everything but it will still pick up random things. I may have to hang up some comforters and pillows or something.

The vocals aren't as bad because that's usually a louder input.

It sounds okay in the mixing stage. But it's like I said, when I go to make a master, I have to turn everything up and when I do, all that noise gets turned up with it.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

So 0vu is very close to yellow and I don't want that. Because when I mix it, I won't have the headroom I want and when I put all the instruments together my master fader will start clipping.

There must be some kind of "clip gain" function in Logic. You can use that to trim things up or down as needed as long as it wasn't distorted on the way in.

 

[mesaboogie5050]

Yes, I can make sure it doesn't actually peak but I don't want it to peak too much naturally so I don't record at high levels. If you record at -18, but you put drums, bass, guitar, vocals and some midi stuff in there, it ends up being pretty loud on the output.

I am looking into ways to possibly start doing some sound proofing. I moved into a house where I have a lot of room.

 

[mixsit]

No, my peaks are higher than that. I am recording at correct levels. -18 is the average. The peaks can go into the yellow. But around -18 is 0vu on my meter. If I go +4, I can barely drive the pre amp like I said and I'm already at -18.

If I turn it down, I'm not driving the pre amp, which I want to drive. Especially with vocals because of the sound I get with the plate voltage engage and the tube gain up but output level down. If i want to do the same on +4 I have to turn it down quite a bit.

Ok, I bet we're making progress here -both in your understanding, and our getting the details.

I think you'll find if you do some searches, people asking and wondering why about this;
Where it is very common when you have a) hot mics and/or b) loud sources- the level going to an A/D can be too hot- in some cases even with the pre all the way down. -And some pres 'all the way down' are still doing 20-30 dB of gain!. (Did we cover this..

The other way to run into this -you're going here, is running a pre up hot for the effect' of it.
It's normal for this to happen. And each case the answer is to pad the out put back down. (In a' or b' you also have the option to pad the mic instead of course.

Sounds like you have one of the UA 610 + comp' combos? Anyway I would presume your switching it's output to the '-10 mode -in this case when 'we want to drive the front end', is totally valid as a way of keeping your record levels where they belong. We'd use an in-line pad in there otherwise.

I'm gonna have to figure out a way to record soft acoustic guitar parts without all the noise. I turn the air conditioning off and everything but it will still pick up random things. I may have to hang up some comforters and pillows or something.

The vocals aren't as bad because that's usually a louder input.

It sounds okay in the mixing stage. But it's like I said, when I go to make a master, I have to turn everything up and when I do, all that noise gets turned up with it.

This of course.. is a signal to noise problem -at the mic. The noise being 'room sounds vs the guitar's sound. And that 'S/N' ratio once it's part of the recording - and any compression makes it worse - doesn't matter where or how you turn it up- moves up and down with your track.

 

[Farview]

It really does sound like the noise is room noise. No amount of gain staging is going to fix that. You can't do anything about it once it's recorded and any compression will just turn down the loud stuff, putting it closer in volume to the quiet stuff, thus making your signal to noise worse.

Some gobos or a tent made out of heavy blankets will help that out.

 

[mesaboogie5050]

Well, I was able to get +4 to work pretty well when I turned the inputs the pre amp is on all the way down. With the saffire pro 40, unity is not at 0. It's at 4.5. So, obviously I had it on 4.5. But turning the knob to 0 is like adding a -10db pad.

So, I turned it down to 0 and used it in +4 on the ART MPA ii. It seems to sound better, I have no idea why it sounds better but it does. I guess because it's meant for that voltage or whatever. I can hear the difference when the tube gain clips much more than I could at -10. Again, don't know why.

So, I have set all pre amps to +4, the compressors to +4 and the 1101 to +4. And turned all the knobs down to 0 on the saffire.

 

[Farview]

It should sound better because you have the gain staging right. The point of gain staging is to get the signal up to line level as soon as possible and then maintain that level through the signal chain. Adding gain, then removing some, then adding some more to make up for it will create a higher noise floor (of the equipment, not the room) and take every piece of equipment out of the sweet spot. That is why it is so important to understand gain staging.