Recording Tips

[demolicious]

I'm trying to get some pointers on digital recording, specifically pertaining to getting sufficient headroom. I'm using a PreSonus Firepod, and mixing digitally in Audition.

First of all, are there any considerations I should take into account that differ from analog recording. I'm still a tad confused on the differences between the levels of both. Keep in mind I am planning on trimming with the Firepod and mixing digitally with the software.

I saw some argument about this on another post, but it lacked a clear answer.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[travelin travis]

It always lacks a clear answer. One guy says don't track hot, another guy asks why, and the whole thing goes in circles over and over.

I think I if you avoid clipping your converters and preamps you'll be fine. Just give yourself enough room so that you don't have to worry about clipping. You might want to think about how your tracks will sum at the master bus too. I've been shooting for tracking levels that will match my mixing levels.

 

[ofajen]

I'm trying to get some pointers on digital recording, specifically pertaining to getting sufficient headroom. I'm using a PreSonus Firepod, and mixing digitally in Audition.

First of all, are there any considerations I should take into account that differ from analog recording. I'm still a tad confused on the differences between the levels of both. Keep in mind I am planning on trimming with the Firepod and mixing digitally with the software.

I saw some argument about this on another post, but it lacked a clear answer.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Some considerations:

1) A difference: digital is precisely constrained to a range of values. Digital will try to give you back the peaks, accurately. So, you must not let them go "over" as the failure mode is ugly. Analog is not so precisely constrained. Tape, for instance, gives up and throws the peaks away if you push levels too much, but with a relatively benign failure mode.

2) OTOH, no, there should not really be a big difference in regard to measuring and setting levels. The nature of what you're recording is obviously the same. You should continue to use an averaging meter, perhaps augmented with a peak reading. Simply set your analog reference level (0 VU) to some reasonable value in the digital world (I use -20 dBFS) and you should have no problems with overs on most material. Ignore peaks, except to make sure there are no overs. This notion is very confusing for some inexperienced folks who only know digital recording and think the built in peak meters in most digital software and hardware tell them something about signal loudness. Familiarity with the musically relevant analog metering is actually a plus.

Cheers,

Otto