Please help...

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Sigma9

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Ok, someone once said to me there are 3 kinds of people, The ones that know everything, The ones that think they know everything, but dont know jack, and those who know they dont know everything and try to learn more. This is why Im here, and HELLO everyone! Heres my nightmare, I have really nice recording equipment but for some reason my levels are all wrong. What I need to know is BASIC techniques for recording Keybords and drum machines. I use a Roland VS 2480 24 track digital studio (awesome machine BTW). I never add EQ to a sound Im recording, I add EQ after. The problem is in the mix, the levels seem to high when I try to master the songs to a CD. Some songs are Rock , some are ballads how do you even out the POWER between these types of songs? What shold my levels be at during, and after recording and for final mastering to burn to a CD? Good god I have tons of questions, but lets just stick to these for now...
 
Actually there are ten types of people. Those that understand binary and those that don't.

In the meantime use Compression and Limiting to even out your levels. Do a search here and you should find more than you ever wanted to know.
 
so....

use compression on the tracks for recording, or after they are recorded?
 
Usualy...
Use for recording, then you get all tracks within one song by same average level recorded. (You can adjust each volume in the mixing section later)

Use when mixing, to normalize the mixed song, then you'll have all songs you mix in same average loud level.

I'm type number eleven out of ten of what TexRoadKill mentioned... :D
 
cool....

How much is a matter of taste I take it, or is there some rule of thumb, ring finger, and pinky I should know about...
 
Sigma9 said:
Ok, someone once said to me there are 3 kinds of people, The ones that know everything, The ones that think they know everything, but dont know jack, and those who know they dont know everything and try to learn more.
Click to expand...
Actually... there are 4 types.... you forgot "The ones that know everything but don't want to tell you...!" :p


:D :D
 
When I'm recording, I try to set the levels so that the peaks are hitting somewhere between -6 and -3 dB. That's a bit tough for me to accomplish on vocals and some guitar parts unless I use compression when I'm recording, so I'll apply maybe 3:1 to vocals and dynamic guitar parts. Later on in the mix, I often have to apply more compression to vocals so that I can get the overall level up (so that the quieter words can be heard clearly).

Bruce, I have a question. I'm using compression to tame peaks when tracking. When do you use limiting for that purpose? Drums?
 
dobro said:
Bruce, I have a question. I'm using compression to tame peaks when tracking. When do you use limiting for that purpose? Drums?
Click to expand...
Compression and limiting are the same thing, except limiting settings use a high ratio and much higher threshold than compressor settings -- limiting tends to work ONLY on peaks, where compressor setting tend to work on more of the signal than strictly peaks (all dependent on the threshold setting)...

I hardly ever use compression during tracking unless the talent's performance is really unwieldy and causing me meter grief! I prefer to capture the sound and decide if it needs compression/limiting at the mixing stage. Sometimes I'll see that it needs it during the track scrubbing phase and I may apply some there using a plug-in (IF the plug-in gives me the sound I'm looking for!)
 
Okay, so how do you:

a) keep the levels hot at the same time that you

b) avoid clipping, especially on vocals?

The only way I've found is to comress a bit while tracking.
 
sigma,
What you're asking about is one of the primary functions of mastering... making sure all of the songs are relative in terms of level, loudness, and sonic continuity. When I was in mastering we did it by notating the levels of every song.. peaks and valleys... then finding a common denominator for all of the tracks.. ie compression, limiting, eq, multi-band compression/limiting, etc.

If you have DAW editing program such as Sound Forge, Wavelab, CEP, etc... the tasks are a lot easier because you can manually knock down transients that might cause a compressor some fits. If you're doing everything on the 2480, automate a quick fader movement to knock down a transient. After you've achieved somewhat "even kieled" wave forms, you can apply some eq, compression/and or limiting to all of the tracks to provide that extra little kick and to also provide some sort of sonic common denominator. Sometimes even a tad bit of reverb can help... I'm talking a tad bit.. mainly to get the characteristics of the reverb unit and not necessarily the reverb effect itself. Normalize if you really feel the need, but only at the very last. If you do normalize, it's imperitive that you've gone through the program material and taken care of stray transients.
 
well I confess...

My first tracker was a tascam 244 4 track tape, my second was a tascam 688 8 track tape, I knew I wanted to go digital when she broke down. I really was not fully prepaired for all the features inside the VS2480. Hell I didnt want the 2480, I wanted the 1680, but I have spent so much money in the store here the owner gave me a great deal, $2500 for the VS 2480, a Sure PG57, all the cables I wanted and the external CD Burner. I hadnt even used the compression limiter or the expander. Mostly because I didnt know what the heck these things did really. I have since read several posts here and what can I say, Knowledge is power. The main thing is that I knew I needed to know more about recording and Ive taken the first step by coming here and I ordered a few books as well that I saw in a few posts here :) I have a good ear to begin with and now I get to sprinkle it with some technique ;)

Be afraid, be very afraid Muhahaha
 
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