Level setting help needed please

MrKwik

MrKwik

**will man ho for gear**
OK here is my problem. I cant for the life of me figure out howto set my recording levels. I'm using Cool Edit Pro 2.1 ith a Delta 1010LT. I have my mics running into my mixer that is basically just for preamps and monitoring. I have 8 mic inputs on the board and have the inserts(?) on the back of the board going into the 8 analog inputs on the sound card. Right now I am just using 4 mics and trying to lay down some drum tracks. I solo each channel on the mixer and set the gain on the preamps there and this is where I get stuck. When I record, I can see the meters in cool edit going into the red. The clipping is aparent when I play the tracks back. I just cant figure out where to set the levels in the software. I know I had done it once before but I set this thing up a couple of years ago and havnt really messed with it in over a year because I needed to upgrade my motherboard. I have messed around in the monitor mixer window for the DELTA1010 but I dont really understand whats going on in there. All the inputs are set to mute and if I unmute them, nothing records. I have read through the manual for the soundcard and the cool edit manual but Im stumped. Cool edit just says to set the levels with your soundcard software or windows mixer, and the delta1010 manual says to use the monitor mixer to set levels but doesnt really say how. I know its staring me right in the face so please be gentle...I'm a noob afterall.
 
Adjust the gain for each preamp on the mixer, while watching your recording levels in Cool Edit. If you are clipping in Cool Edit, you've got the gain set to high at the preamps.
 
How much gain do you need in the mixer will depend on how high are the soundcard levels. Verify your inputs through the control panel, there are 3 options, +-4 db, consumer and +-10db. I´d go with the first. Also verify that monitor mixer option is checked unmute all the ins. I think you can´t record because you haven´t check the monitor mixer.

Hope this helps
 
TamaSabian said:
How much gain do you need in the mixer will depend on how high are the soundcard levels. Verify your inputs through the control panel, there are 3 options, +-4 db, consumer and +-10db. I´d go with the first. Also verify that monitor mixer option is checked unmute all the ins. I think you can´t record because you haven´t check the monitor mixer.

Hope this helps
Click to expand...
I CAN record, the levels are just too high. If I uncheck the mute boxes in the monitor mixer I get nothing when I try to record. Thats the part that really doesnt make any sense to me. I guess I can adjust the levels down on the mixer but when I do that the meters on the mixer are way low. The sound is much better with the preamp levels up higher until it clips on the loud parts. I also cant cant see what the recording levels are in cool edit unless Im actually recording. If I select "monitor recording levels", I get the meters but nothing registers until I hit the record button. Isnt there a way to see what the level for each track is before you record?
 
MrKwik said:
I CAN record, the levels are just too high. If I uncheck the mute boxes in the monitor mixer I get nothing when I try to record. Thats the part that really doesnt make any sense to me. I guess I can adjust the levels down on the mixer but when I do that the meters on the mixer are way low. The sound is much better with the preamp levels up higher until it clips on the loud parts. I also cant cant see what the recording levels are in cool edit unless Im actually recording. If I select "monitor recording levels", I get the meters but nothing registers until I hit the record button. Isnt there a way to see what the level for each track is before you record?
Click to expand...

Move up the faders from the patchbay, if you go there you will si HW INS and OUTS move those faders up verify which ins and outs you´re using. When you play something you should see the monitor mixer leds moving on.
You need to arm the track in order to verify how the levels are in cool edit. I say just arm the track, in SONAR you can do that and if you press R the program will start recording.
 
I have been messing with this all nite and I'm beyond frustrated with it. It just isnt making any sense to me how the patchbay controls work. The mute box is checked for all channels, yet I can arm and record any of the eight channels with no problem other than the level meter in CE is constantly hitting the red. I have tried unmuting them in the patchbay and messing with the levels and it doesnt seem to affect anything. When I play back what I recorded, it actually doesnt sound too bad and the meter doesnt go into the red like while I was recording but I can tell in the waveform view that it is definately clipped. I tried just backing off the preamp levels on my mixer but even all the way down it still gets into the red with ease. What am I missing here?
 
UPDATE:
OK,Found my problem. I was in the wrong place. In the hardware setup tab of the Delta1010 control panel there is a button in the bottom RH corner that says "sliders". Click that and the 8 sliders for the input levels pop up. I must have read that damn book 5 times and never saw that. Seems like there should be a set of meters there to go along with the sliders but whatever.

Thanks for trying to help me out here.
 
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