Bouncing reds?

[RideTheCrash]

I'm taking a course in my high school that deals w/ video recording etc. Anyway, the other day I was in little radio room they have, full of old equipment and a crappy RadioShack mic with the grille top popped off. My teacher was explaining how to get a good level so your not in the mud, or not too tinny in the highs and I'm not sure how to describe the meters (it wasn't on a mixer) but they had a few orange square shapes then 2 reds, which he said "bounce" them in the reds so they flicker in the reds.

Now isn't red the clipping area? Maybe it's different, but when I was jamming with my band I had some guy over that had previously taken the course and I made some comment on my mic picking up too much of the drums (I have to sing and drum unfortunately) and driving my vocals into clipping and he said that was good -- cause he learned it from that class. Someone care to clear this up?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Analog gear -- some "reds" -- good!
Digital gear -- any "red" -- bad......!

Radio shack video mics -- complete crap!

 

[trickless]

If you have the equipment to make a multi-track recording you could overdub the vocals later. I know when I sing and play the drums the quality of both suffers. Now mind you, I'm not a very good singer or drummer.

Analog clipping has a often sought after compression and distortion quality.

Digital clipping makes a crackling pop kinda sound. Like Blue Bear said ... BAD.

Are the meters on the recording device or on a mixer or something? Peak levels can be different from point to point in the equipment.

Hope that made sense..
Pat

 

[RideTheCrash]

Ah, I thought it might be the analog = good red thing. Yes, RadioShack mics are horrible, I own 2.

At home here I'm not recording when I drum and sing, I'm just using the mixer to plug the mic into. When I record, everything is separately recorded.

I'm trying to think back to what they have. Some old "stereo mixer" a tape deck (the meters were on this piece), a CD player, another smaller tape player and some other piece of equipment which basically just control overall volume sound.