Soundcard Playback Settings/compression?

[Kclark01]

Hi,

I'm just starting out here and am using SBLive and the demo of N-track, running acoustic guitar and vocals through a Mackie 408M powered mixer.

I've recorded two acoustic guitar tracks and a vocal track. Before mixing them I was wondering how I need to set the treble and bass on the soundcard to get a "true" signal. They're currently set in the middle.

About the vocals, I've noticed that even through I keep the level well below the "red" in the vumeter when recording, when I play the tracks the vocals will often get clipped and will "crackle." If I adjust the level of the track downward to eliminate this, the track barely audible. I tried using the compression on my mixer to no avail. I'm using a Sure Beta 58A mic, by the way. Will Fasoft's or another compressor plug-in eliminate this problem? Or are there any other suggestions or insights someone can offer?

You guys have been really helpful already. Thanks for reading my post.

 

[nave]

what up dude


first.....off......keep the treble and the bass flat on the sound card.......


Next........When you are playing back all the tracks together they clip right????? not when they're played alone???? correct?? If that's the case then you simply have to adjust the volume of the tracks so that they don't clip when playing back together......That's the simplest solution.

If you are sure it is the vocals that are causing the clipping when all the tracks are all playing back together then adjust the vocal volume first before messing with the other ones....that way it should be "audible." ---It's really just common sense....It sounds like you drastically lowering all the tracks to prevent clipping ....You needn't do that and that's why the volume get so low....Keep in mind that when you are mixing you need to be really attentive to all your tracks and you should now at all times what is doing what.

I have this problem quite a bit and it usually comes from a single snare drum or a bass drum hit that causes clipping when all the tracks get played back. When I first started recording this bothered me to now end.....As soon as I started really being attentive to my tracks I realized what was happening; and then I started cutting and pasting and replace the single drum hit that was causing the clippping with one that doesn't cause the whole shabang to clip. Problem solved.......The bottom line is that if the track doesn't clip then when you tracked it then you have a mixing problem on your hands.



Just try to keep the levels of the tracks where you want them while maintaining the over all level of the mix in a range between -6db and 0db.....(Although I prefer to stay inbetween -3 and 0....others will probably disagree with that) It's like a puzzle man...you just keep messing with it until everything fits.


As far as the compression is concerned I would advise to try as many different software compressors as you can and see what does wind up working. Also be sure to read about the fundamentals of compression if you havne't already. Use compression sparingly...you should try to keep you're levels even while tracking as much as humanly possible.