gereral dilemma with recording levels in sonar

minofifa

minofifa

New member
I thought this might have been a problem because i was using a tascam us-122, but now that ive upgraded to a 828mkII, i'm still having this same issue:

basically, i can't decide where to set the trim on my preamps when recording. I usually try to set it so that the meters in sonar are as close as possible to clipping without actually clipping. this usually backfires when something loud comes in and the whole track is wrecked do to a clipping noise. I always though that recording as loud as possible was the right way to go so you get the most headroom when mixing. Should i just be setting the trim way lower when recording, and settling on a quieter mix?

Is there any way to fix that clipping noise when you clip? i.e can i compress the crap out of it or limit the track to remove it? or is this a bad idea generally?

thanks for any adice at all.
 
Limiting would be the effect your are after but I don't really recommend it. Compression affects the entire signal, where limiting creates a brick wall at a set threshold. Your are correct when you say the best way is to set the gains a little lower to provide that safety net. If you are recording with good equipment into the digital domain, your track won't suffer the kind of degredation that analog would. That being said, you really need to figure out what your true peaks will be before you set gain. I assume your vocal tracks are giving you the most problems. You can always ride a fader when you know the vocalist is about to "lay into it".
 
I'll second that. You have a very wide useful window to work in with 24 bit. Leave your self some headroom. 'Normal (average) level is in the -18 range. That leaves room for the peaks and there is no sound penalty for having a little extra room for the peaks.
Now you can relax and enjoy the tracking. :p :D
Wayne
 
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