Recording VU meter

[Brother Guinness]

Help! My recording VU meter has turned quite long and skinny. Im sure I accidently "customized" it in some way but I cant seem to get it back to normal.
I know this is a pretty stupid question but at my level I need all the help I can get
Thanks
Chuck

 

[DarkFriend]

You should be able to "detach" it from the side of your screen, and resize it by clicking and dragging the side or corner of the window.

Hope that makes sense..

 

[psmith66]

"Speaking" of the VU meter, does anyone have problems with the accuracy of the readings? My assumption is that if it doesn't display the red "clip" box, or in any event doesn't show a peak above 0, it isn't actually clipping. However, sometimes it'll show a peak of, say, -0.5 but the resulting playback is totally distorted. I like to get as hot a signal as possible, but now I find I'm playing it safer in order to ensure a cleaner result. Unfortunately, my S/N is probably suffering.

What are the views out there? Avoid excessive red? Avoid all red and peak in the yellow?

 

[Dougie Johnson]

Hello, Mr. Smith

From my experience using N-Track, the vu reading are pretty accurate. I have not had clipping or distortion showing up after the fact when I start to edit the trax using my Sound Forge.
So I would stay around the "yellow" at best, and also keep a good eye on the inital recording VU levels to make sure that the signal going in is even, and not clipping on occasion.
DJ

 

[psmith66]

Yeah, I think I'm into the red too much (in more ways than one.....).

 

[Tom Hicks]

A level of minus three dB will ensure you never get "overs" while maintaining a decent headroom.The meters are a bit off,as many users have noted.

Tom

 

[psmith66]

Thanks Tom.

That's how I will approach it from now on - you seem to be the man among men when it comes to ntrack.

 

[Tom Hicks]

Kind words Paul,but too generous by far!
I have found the n-track community at the fasoft forum as well as the good guys here at home rec to be so much more helpful than the angry trolls and flamers that haunt so many discussion boards.One hand washes the other.Good luck with your project.

Tom

 

[LI Slim]

One other thing

I don't think N-track distorts unless you're significantly OVER 0.0. I have had distortion problems in the past from overloading my microphone. I don't know if you're even using a mic in this instance, but if you are, try backing off, restraining your vocal technique (if applicable), reducing the input level, hitting a -10db switch if applicable, stuff like that.

 

[psmith66]

I was having problems with everything: POD guitars, DR660, mic'd guitars, mic'd acoustic, bass via mixer, and so on. I retracked a bunch of things this weekend using Tom's "-3" approach and it made a huge difference. Before, I must have been tracking everything too hot - on playback, I couldn't get a track fader past halfway without clipping. I was initially worried about increased noise resulting from recording at lower levels but that hasn't posed a problem thus far. In any event I'm still trying to get the hang of this. I'm probably gonna post my first "work" within a couple of weeks - hopefully I'll get some feedback on the things I'm doing wrong or could use improvement.

As for the vocals? My singing is so bad that clipping/distortion would represent an improvement.