Mixer volume vs. PC recording volume

  • Thread starter Thread starter RecordingMaster
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RecordingMaster

RecordingMaster

A Sarcastic Statement
I mic drums/guitar, etc. through a Behringer mixer and into my PC's line-in. What would be the appropriate levels I should set on the mixer master volume, and my PC's recording volume to achieve the clearest, undistorted, least amount of noise/hiss?

Right now, I have my mixer's master at about -6 dB and my pc's master recording volume at about 7/8's full. I know this is probobly not the best way and I'm sure I could get a much better sound, but I guess it's something I never payed much attention to. What would be better: the mixer turned up louder then the pc recording volume, or vice versa?

Any input is appreciated...thanks in advance.
Jay
 
Bring your mixer up to about 60% or just a little above, then turn down the PC recording volume. Keep an eye on the level meters, you don't want to ever red line them. If you get into the red, chances are that you will be clipping or at least distorting badly. I grew up with analog where you can get away with some red line but on a PC you don't want any at all.
 
Thanks for the advice!
I do understand what you are saying, but I wanted to know where a medium was.. So I assume, I would think that I would be watching the dB levels on my PC (live throught the program I use) as well as the live dB meter on my mixer. Should I maybe adjust it so that both are hitting the same level? Just a guess.

Anyone?
 
It's kind of a balancing/juggling act. You want everything loud enough to be heard (lets do the mixer first) so you want to bring the levels up as far as you can without getting any distortion from the mixer, easy enough when recording one track (or use one chanel) when you use multiple chanels the levels combine and seem to (in the output chain) be louder and get muddy too. You have two options now (still on the mixer) either adjust each track or lower your master. If lowering the master works, fine, if not you need to adjust each track. Now over to the recorder, if you got the mixer right this part is a lot easier, this is where you want to be sure that NOTHING RED LINES. Hopefully you get a clear clean recording, there will likely be a track or two (all of them if you think it needs it) which will need some tweeking, a little compression here, EQ there, touch of this or that efx, whatever it needs to bring it to life. The best idea is in my opinion to get the best possible inital signal from the mixer to the recorder to start with, it saves a lot of work later.
 
Alright! Sounds good. It doesn't really matter, but I forgot to mention that each drum track gets sent straight through one stereo jack, so I can't adjust anything individually afterwards. That's what makes my process so long, because I don't have a control room and it's just me. So I have to record, stop, listen, tweak, go back to the kit, etc etc.
I'll try the tips that I can use from your advice, though. Thanks a lot.
 
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