I had some friends over to help them record some songs for their band, and I knew recording live drums would be a challenge with just two SM57’s, but things became ruinous when I tried to set levels for the overhead mic and I could not get it to stop going into the red without adding a bit of compression and turning the gain waaaaay down. The result was an extremely quiet drum track that hated being turned up, because even through highly distorting levels of compression, still went into the red before reaching a decently high volume. I’m just wondering what I need to do to track at an appropriate dynamic without constant clipping or relying on hypercompression. I’m using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (college student) and Pro Tools (student discount) in my bedroom.
Overhead Mic Clipping even at extremely quiet recording levels…
- Thread starter Logan55x
- Start date
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Can I assume you're using the Scarlett Mix Control that is part of the ASIO driver package? If so, does it have the Pad option (see pic)?
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Also, sound sources that are highly impulsive need to be recorded low enough to prevent clipping their peaks. That might mean turning the gain record quite low and then using compression/limiting to get them up to a more typical average level.
rob aylestone
Moderator
Where was the other mic? The overhead usually has more gain than the other sources, so is rarely the problem. Something is adrift with the gain settings, as said above.