are my mic levels too low?

[axis_d]

Hi everyone. I just attempted my first recording, (some hip hop vocals for a friend of mine). Im not sure how well it went yet, I'm a little concerned that the gain was too low on the mic, but I'm too inexperienced to tell.

I read that the input level should be set somewhere between -12 and -10db ideally to avoid clipping and allow room for effects. So I tested out the mic, and thats about where the levels were. On the cubase track, the waveform seemed small compared to what I usually see in photos. I always thought the range was supposed to be wide. When I play it back, I can hear it fine, but it's very low compared to when I play music through the same speakers on youtube or itunes. Is there something I did wrong? Its my first recording but I still want it to be good, any tips?

 

[jimmys69]

You are doing it correctly. What you hear on youtube and itunes are likely mastered, or at least brought up to a finished volume. Do not worry about this until you are done mixing.

If you wish to see the waveform larger for editing, then move that little slider on the upper right scroll bar in the project window. As you can see from this, the waveform is irrelevant to the actual audio. The waveforms (images) are only a representation of the audio recorded. They are not actually related to gain level.

 

[ecc83]

Hi everyone. I just attempted my first recording, (some hip hop vocals for a friend of mine). Im not sure how well it went yet, I'm a little concerned that the gain was too low on the mic, but I'm too inexperienced to tell.

I read that the input level should be set somewhere between -12 and -10db ideally to avoid clipping and allow room for effects. So I tested out the mic, and thats about where the levels were. On the cubase track, the waveform seemed small compared to what I usually see in photos. I always thought the range was supposed to be wide. When I play it back, I can hear it fine, but it's very low compared to when I play music through the same speakers on youtube or itunes. Is there something I did wrong? Its my first recording but I still want it to be good, any tips?

Your levels are if anything a wee bit too high! The received wisdom is that each track should sit around -18dBFS as an average and peaks(!) should hit -12, -10 on rare occasions. This assumes you are recording at 24bits (and 44.1kHz. No one has ever proved to my satisfaction any merit in bigger files) .

This will of course result in even wee'er "waveforms" but they are just a useful representation, the only time you need them bigger is if you are editing the track (there is a way to zoom the waves, no doubt a Cubase savvy bod will tell us?)

Commercial tracks WILL be louder. They are a sum of maybe scores of tracks and have been compressed, processed and "mastered" to loudness death.

It is a sad paradox that at a time when the dynamic range achievable in the recording chain has never been bigger, approaching real life, we are fed pap mashed to within -0.1dBFS!

Dave. (and Jimmy is quicker on the qwerty than this old pilled up bottle jockey!)