Please help me, Im confused!!

[TheloniusMonk]

When they talk about "setting recording levels", is this something that you do with software, or are they talking about how loud you have your keyboard and input gains turned up before you start playing?

I have the dial of my Tascam turned up to 6, and the Yamaha keyboard is turned up to 5. Before I start playing, the peak meter is at zero. Is this correct?

If I turn up the Tascam input gain past 6, the peak meter begins to rise...

Is the peak meter supposed to start somewhere in the middle before you've even begun playing your instrument?

I'm a bit confused, and I really need help! My last 5 messages on this forum have been ignored, so I'm getting desperate,,,

Thanks..

Monk

 

[gecko zzed]

When they talk about "setting recording levels", is this something that you do with software, or are they talking about how loud you have your keyboard and input gains turned up before you start playing?

I have the dial of my Tascam turned up to 6, and the Yamaha keyboard is turned up to 5. Before I start playing, the peak meter is at zero. Is this correct?

If I turn up the Tascam input gain past 6, the peak meter begins to rise...

Is the peak meter supposed to start somewhere in the middle before you've even begun playing your instrument?

I'm a bit confused, and I really need help! My last 5 messages on this forum have been ignored, so I'm getting desperate,,,

Thanks..

Monk

Setting recording levels is what you do with your Tascam and keyboard so that you get a respectable signal without going inot the red, i.e. getting it too loud.

Use the combination of Tascam and keyboard to do this.

Starting off with the Tascam at 6 sounds reasonable.

You should see little (if no) activity on the meters unless you are playing something.

If you are, this means that you are getting too much residual noise from somewhere (e.g the background noise from within the keyboard itself).

Note that you most likely will be taking a line level out of the keyboard, so the Tascam needs to be set accordingly. I'm not sure what input it has, but it should have a line input, and a means of controlling the level.

Here's what I would do:

1 Get the keyboard to play something, with its volume set about midway.

2 Bring the volume control of the Tascam up until there is a signal showing that is strong but not bursting into the red.

 

[TheloniusMonk]

Here's what I would do:

1 Get the keyboard to play something, with its volume set about midway.

2 Bring the volume control of the Tascam up until there is a signal showing that is strong but not bursting into the red.

Thanks dude, if this album makes any money I should probably pay you!!! I really appreciate the help, this board has been dead for the past week, not sure why...

I seem to be hitting my peak at -2 db, which is below zero and hopefully acceptable.. I'm not getting any clipping so I think this will be ok now..

Thanks..

 

[legionserial]

It might be worth peaking a little lower than that. Are you talking individual tracks or the master output with that peak?

 

[gecko zzed]

It might be worth peaking a little lower than that. Are you talking individual tracks or the master output with that peak?

What legionserial says. You don't need to go anywhere near that high.

I think you are talking about individual tracks, right?

 

[TheloniusMonk]

Yeah, Im talking about individual tracks..

I am trying to avoid normalizing, because I hear that amplifies noise levels..

So instead I decided to record each track at a good db peak level, and just not normalize the whole mix at all..

So what would be the ideal peak level? Right now the soft piano sounds are coming in at about -15 db, the medium piano is about -10 db, and when it gets loud it goes to about -5 db.. when it gets REALLY loud, like a fortisimo, it goes to -3 db...

What levels would you prefer?

Thanks for the help..