Possibly a stupid question......

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liv_rong

liv_rong

Knows very little
when i am recording, i keep the signal on my mixers and software just below 0db. Also when im playing back the signal is just below 0db on the software and on the mixers/interfaces.

my question is, should the level be set the same way on my monitor controller when im listening through my monitors? or is that irrelevant?

does this make sense what i am asking?

thanks for any answers:)
 
I think when you listen back, it's helpful to listen at a couple of different levels, so you can get an idea of how something sounds at quiet and loud levels.

As far as recording, I don't try and record that loudly...I like to have headroom. Sounds tend to build up in volume as you increase tracks, so leaving yourself some headroom is probably helpful.
 
thanks, that is a good information, i never really do that.

but i guess what my question is still should all of the meter levels be the same on software, mixer/interface and monitor controller? dont know if it matters or not. also, signal goes in that order during playback.

is this making sense what im asking?
 
also, when you say at different levels, do you mean turn the volume of the monitors down, but keep the levels the same in the software? or turn everything down?

when i am mixing, i will sometimes listen to a few that were proffesionally mixed/mastered and compare the overall volume and the meter levels to that of my mix to make sure when i burn it to cd that it is not too quite.

this has proved to be effective, because in my earlier days, with older software, the meters would be nearly clipping in software, and volume on speakers turned up, but then after i would burn it it would turn out much more quite in comparison to other things. anyways, long story short, that doesnt happen any more.
 
Turn all faders to unity (+0db).

Then, when tracking, turn up/down the gain on your preamp until your level is averaging around -18 to -12db on the meters.

When mixing, it's up to you. I usually try to keep all meters at +0db and use the volume control on my monitors (crappy speakers) instead of the faders in the software.

Then of course, when mixing, move the faders however you need to.

That's the way I do it anyway.
 
Why do ya'll do that?
I record with an analog board and perhaps this is an issue mainly for 'puter recording which is why i don't understand. But I don't see how you lose headroom at mix down even if you track at 0db. All I have to do at mixdown is
lower the send of the entire mix to where it's below 0db ..... I basically have headroom at the master fader.
On 'puter recording do you try to avoid using some sort of master fader plug-in?
 
Im pretty sure what dogman is saying is when you have a bunch of seperate tracks playing all at the same time, the stereo mix is going to be a lot louder than if you played say only two or three of the tracks. so if all the tracks are at 0db, then you have less room to play around with each individual track when you are mixing. it makes sense to me, because i have ran into problems when i have to turn one track up, but then it bumps the stereo mix up higher than id like it.

thats what i got from it at least
 
i guess what my question is still should all of the meter levels be the same on software, mixer/interface and monitor controller? dont know if it matters or not. also, signal goes in that order during playback.
Lt. Bob said:
But I don't see how you lose headroom at mix down even if you track at 0db. All I have to do at mixdown is
lower the send of the entire mix to where it's below 0db ..... I basically have headroom at the master fader.
On 'puter recording do you try to avoid using some sort of master fader plug-in?
The key to the whole signal path is to think of line level - 0VU - as the sweet spot around which your signal levels should average (not counting when you purposely want to push something hot for a wanted distortion effect, but even then, you'll want to return to line level after getting that distortion so you're OK downstream.)

Then remember that 0VU is NOT 0dB. 0n the analog side, 0VU is technically measured at +4dBu. On the digital side, it depends upon the calibration of your converter, but typically it will be within a couple of dBs of -18dBFS.

To look at digital levels from the standpoint of 0dBFS is kind of looking at it backwards. Instead, keep doing the same thing as you do on the analog side, keep your average levels somewhere around line level. In digital, if yor line level is, say -18dBFS, that gives you 18dB of headroom for your peaks and transients. If that's not enough, then you can turn down the input into your converter, or, if you don't have one of those, as a last resort turn down the input recording fader in your softwre. But if your peaks some in *below* 0dBFS - say at -6 or even -10, that;s fine, don't feel compelled to turn it up to 6-10 dBs to zero.

How do you know how to set your recording faders to average around line level? Simple. Just average 0VU analog into your converter, let it convert, and keep the input faders on your software at unity gain (no boost or cut.)

To answer Bob's question, sure you can turn the master faders down in software. But by pushing all digital levels up to zero, you are unnecessarily booting the digital gain, and in the process boosting the gain of the converted noise level recoded from from analog. There is no advantage and only disadvantage to pushing the recording to as hot as possible in digital like there is in analog; so there is no reason to crank the tracks just to throttle them back down on the mains again.

Liv_rong, it is unrealistic to expect your mixdowns to come out anywhere near as loud as your average commercial CD made since about 1990. They wount sound that loud, nor should they sound that loud. Those commercial mixes are put through heavy pre-mastering that squashed the dynamic life out of them, allowing them to unnecessarily boost the volume under the false belief that louder equals better. Even their mixes come out of the oven sounding quieter.

You can make your mixes louder by smashing them into pancakes in premastering as well if you want. I'd recommend against trying to match the levels of a commercial CD though; they have better people, better facilities, and higher budgets than you do, and if you try to playthe volume war with them too closely, your mixes will loose most every time.

Learn to push the volume in premastering enough to tighten up and polish your mix, and to get the volume up just a little, but learn to use the volume control on your playback device to make up for the rest. It'll sound a hell of a lot better that way.

G.
 
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ahh, i see. very good stuff there, thanks very much. thats is just what i was looking for.
 
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