moskus
The Creator of Æ, Ø and Å
I thought it had to take place before getting digitized. And that's really the point of having external compressors and EQ...dachay2tnr said:
S
SteveD
New member
Absolutely. I recently added FMR's outboard RNP/RNC stereo pre-amp & compressor to my rack. Managing vocals, acoustic guitars, & bass, is a snap and oh man what it has done for the cymbals in the overhead tracks! Great pre-amps coupled with managed peaks and full sounding quiet passages BEFORE it gets to the hard drive. These tracks many times require no plug-in's where they once did, and the wave forms now look comparable to tracks recorded in higher end studios.moskus said:
One of my better investments.
I use the low cut filter and eq on the Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro for other tracks as needed to get the sound right BEFORE it hits the hard drive, but I try to adjust eq with mic placement before reaching for the dials on the mixer.
The point is to record the sound you want to hear, instead of trying to "fix it in the mix".
_______
SteveD
www.5adayclub.net/music/
S
SteveD
New member
dachay2tnr
One Hit Wonder
SteveD said:
Where's your sense of adventure.
You guys are just reconfirming what I already said. Once the signal has been digitized, there's nothing you can do to prevent clipping. Clipping basically means that you've recorded a signal at 0db or higher, and there is no way to represent that in a digital format.
Software can try and interpolate what the peak should look like, but essentially it's just an educated guess.
M
mallcore pop
Hard Nipples!!!
Ditto dachay2tnr!
The signal routing by definition can't work preamp--plug--a/d--host.
But that's what outboard is for!
And SteveD, try not to compare waveforms. It's rude to the person in the next stall.
The signal routing by definition can't work preamp--plug--a/d--host.
But that's what outboard is for!
And SteveD, try not to compare waveforms. It's rude to the person in the next stall.
moskus
The Creator of Æ, Ø and Å
Yeah, we know, but it helps the post-count.dachay2tnr said:
So, to sum up: Adding effects as you track wont do you any good because it happens after the signal is digitized.
Qwerty
New member
moskus said:Yeah, we know, but it helps the post-count.
So, to sum up: Adding effects as you track wont do you any good because it happens after the signal is digitized.
I'm sorry Moskus, could you clarify that please? Does adding effects to your track not do any good because it happens after the signal is digitised?
Q.
moskus
The Creator of Æ, Ø and Å
Yes, you need outboard effects. Nothing can be done digitally...
Qwerty
New member
I see. Do you mean that nothing can be done digitally and I must use outboard effects?
If you could please clarify, I would be most appreciative.
Q.
If you could please clarify, I would be most appreciative.
Q.
moskus
The Creator of Æ, Ø and Å
Yes, you will find eveything you need at this page.
Qwerty
New member
I see. As does the tongue shoved firmly in my cheek.
I actually visited said page today, actually this one - http://www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex.cfm?id=MDX2600&lang=eng - and it is now sitting on the desk here next to me........
Now I know it isn't this one - http://www.turramusic.com.au/products_detail.asp?productID=407&mainCategoryId=9 - but hey - at least I haven't had divorce papers filed on me!!
Q.
Now - to work out how to use it....................
I actually visited said page today, actually this one - http://www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex.cfm?id=MDX2600&lang=eng - and it is now sitting on the desk here next to me........
Now I know it isn't this one - http://www.turramusic.com.au/products_detail.asp?productID=407&mainCategoryId=9 - but hey - at least I haven't had divorce papers filed on me!!
Q.Now - to work out how to use it....................
tombuur
New member
I agree a compressor/limiter and perhaps some other effects would be nice to have already in the recorded track, without the original signal being distorted. If Sonar could do that, great! You could also save some processing power by using an external, and perhaps better compressor?
So far so good. But remember compression diminishes your signal/noise ratio. So why not just record a 24 bit signal, adjusted so as not to distort anywhere in the signal chain? You can add compression later or postrecording for monitoring, if for example a drummer needs to hear compressed cymbals while playing for better performance. If you use a compressor to avoid distorsion you are effectively just reducing your 24 bit dynamic range to something a lot less. So don't fool yourself into thinking you have 24 bit quality, just because a prerecording compressor prevented overflow.
As to the second issue, latency and recording vocals, I think for those with a slow computer/soundcard you could get something useable with, say, 10ms latency. If your card can route a direct dry signal to the singer, do that. That will be no latency, but also no reverb. Then add 100% reverb with 10 ms latency to the track being recorded and mix that with the dry direct signal, until the singer is happy with the sound. Later you can reduce the reverb when mixing the laid down tracks. I realize this work-around is no good for guitar effects where you usually don't want anything left of the original signal. But for vocals, I believe it could be useful.
So far so good. But remember compression diminishes your signal/noise ratio. So why not just record a 24 bit signal, adjusted so as not to distort anywhere in the signal chain? You can add compression later or postrecording for monitoring, if for example a drummer needs to hear compressed cymbals while playing for better performance. If you use a compressor to avoid distorsion you are effectively just reducing your 24 bit dynamic range to something a lot less. So don't fool yourself into thinking you have 24 bit quality, just because a prerecording compressor prevented overflow.
As to the second issue, latency and recording vocals, I think for those with a slow computer/soundcard you could get something useable with, say, 10ms latency. If your card can route a direct dry signal to the singer, do that. That will be no latency, but also no reverb. Then add 100% reverb with 10 ms latency to the track being recorded and mix that with the dry direct signal, until the singer is happy with the sound. Later you can reduce the reverb when mixing the laid down tracks. I realize this work-around is no good for guitar effects where you usually don't want anything left of the original signal. But for vocals, I believe it could be useful.
S
SteveD
New member
I had to think about that for a second... Too funny!mallcore pop said:SteveD, try not to compare waveforms. It's rude to the person in the next stall.