Question about levels...

  • Thread starter Thread starter wx3
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wx3

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I'm having a little trouble recording some gutiar and I was wondering if anyone could help me out....

I'm recording heavily distorted guitar through a pod xt, into a firepod, into cubase. I'm recording two tracks simultaneously, one for the left output and one for the right output. I finally got a great sounding, powerful distortion. The levels on both tracks were recorded just near the peak of the green , just before yellow, but when I checked on my master level, it's clipping like hell. I don't understand why it's clipping if both tracks are still in the green.

Would compression be my answer? Please help out a newb like myself ;).
 
I think what you are saying is that each track was recorded in the green but the master is in the red. this is normal, because when you blend the tracks their summed volume is louder. you need to just bring down the volume on the tracks a few db after you have recorded them.
 
Yeah, sadly that's the problem, and I know that that is the easy answer. But I just loose the oomph from the distortion when I push those meters down :(.
 
You might crank the amp up a little so you still have the drive and lower your recording volume just enough to stay in the green.
 
Do you have any other instruments fighting for the same frequencies? If so, you may need to apply some EQ cut to remove a little of the common frequency band from those instruments and let your guitar have it. Or, you could cut it from your guitar and let other tracks have it, but if you say you like how your guitar sounds now, then you may not want to. Although, you may be surprised at how a track that may sound sorta crappy (or not ideal or as full as you might like) on its own can sound really great in a mix, so keep the mix in mind.

Good luck! :)
-Jeff
 
wx3 said:
Yeah, sadly that's the problem, and I know that that is the easy answer. But I just loose the oomph from the distortion when I push those meters down :(.
Click to expand...

I don't understand this statement. If you pull down the faders on those individual channels and turn up your monitoring level it's the same sound. You don't need to turn down the amp or POD or whatever when you record it. You just need to turn down the track faders after you record it. I was under the impression that you were just talking about 2 tracks of guitar, but if you're saying that it is getting lost in a full mix, then you just need to turn everything else down too. Plain and simple. ;)
 
well, if you *like* the sound of digital clipping, go with it, i guess.
 
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