Any HD24 users?

Seeker of Rock

Seeker of Rock

Let’s Go Brandon!
What levels are you tracking on it? Jon Scrip and a few others recommend tracking lower than what user manuals state and their logic makes sense, but I'm curious what levels everyone is recording onto their units , in general for different instruments, and whether you've had any pros or cons with those levels when it comes time to mix them.
 
Well, the inputs are balanced +4 dBm. I'm hitting them with the peaks at -15 (sometimes just a BIT over) on the HD's meter scale. We all know that -18 more or less equates to 0 dBvu.
 
Track Rat said:
Well, the inputs are balanced +4 dBm. I'm hitting them with the peaks at -15 (sometimes just a BIT over) on the HD's meter scale. We all know that -18 more or less equates to 0 dBvu.
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Alesis (and most other manufacturers of similar gear) recommend a little hotter, right? The manual recommends to set -15 as the average with peaks beyond that but below the clip (obviously), but what Massive Master posted in his article from 2009 makes sense (about having more room to work at mixdown). With tape, I think you would typically have more noise and less sound saturation by recording at lower levels. Do you feel anything is lost sonically (less information being recorded) by not pushing the levels a little hotter (not to clipping obviously) with this digital machine? I've been letting peaks hit -6 and average between -15 and -9 or so on the meter with something like a drum kit, but maybe I should stop treating this like a tape machine.
 
based on the quality of your recordings I'd just keep doing what you're doing ....... trust your ears.
 
I've found through hard experience to be modest with the levels. Where it has bit me on the ass is sending hot levels back to my console where it can overload the channel strip.
 
Track Rat said:
I've found through hard experience to be modest with the levels. Where it has bit me on the ass is sending hot levels back to my console where it can overload the channel strip.
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My return levels to the board are o.k., and I'll pull them down if they start pushing too high, but now my levels into this Masterlink I just bought read hot. According to the machine's meters, anyway. There is a gain level adjust AFTER you record to hard disk and pre-CD burn, but it wouldn't reverse clipping on the way in. And this is from well below 0db at the master L/R outs of the board. I think I'm going to need to spend some ear time with the masterlink and see if the meters are off. In these aspects, a computer would be so much easier, but I guess I enjoy doing my recording the hard way or something.
 
When I first started using mine to get a handle on things, I recorded some stuff with some hot levels. I found that it was best to leave some headroom for peaks, because the meters on my machine didn't have the tendency to lie.
 
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