Super noob question lol.
- Thread starter slimmie01
- Start date
XploZiveToyz
All American Un-American
You can if you like, or you can choose not to, It's your choice.
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
...but most vocalists want to--and getting the mix between the playback of the music and your vocal exactly right can make a huge difference in the quality of your performance.
How do you arrange this? When you buy a USB audio interface, make sure you get one with "Direct Hardware Monitoring' which will let you mix between the recorded music and you vocal until you're happy with the balance. Depending on the software you use you should also be able to do a mix in your computer but this is rarely satisfactory because the round trip via the computer adds enough latency (delay) to your voice to be distracting.
How do you arrange this? When you buy a USB audio interface, make sure you get one with "Direct Hardware Monitoring' which will let you mix between the recorded music and you vocal until you're happy with the balance. Depending on the software you use you should also be able to do a mix in your computer but this is rarely satisfactory because the round trip via the computer adds enough latency (delay) to your voice to be distracting.
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
The gain setting on your pre amp doesn't really matter (as long as it's not clipping). The important bit is the level coming off your A to D and into your DAW. You want to be recording with your peaks no higher than -6dB(FS) and the average a lot lower than that.
Am I right in guessing that you're plugging the output of your pre amp into the built in sound card on your computer (you don't mention an external interface, hence my guess)? If so, your very next purchase should be a proper interface with the monitoring control I mentioned. They're not badly expensive and should result in a great improvement in your sound quality compared to the built in which will have a high level of self noise and very little headroom before clipping.
Am I right in guessing that you're plugging the output of your pre amp into the built in sound card on your computer (you don't mention an external interface, hence my guess)? If so, your very next purchase should be a proper interface with the monitoring control I mentioned. They're not badly expensive and should result in a great improvement in your sound quality compared to the built in which will have a high level of self noise and very little headroom before clipping.
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
Ah, good to hear you have the Focusrite interface.
There's no hard and fast rule for setting up your gain staging but basically you don't want your pre amp high and your Focusrite low or vice versa. If you aim to have the gain on both units roughly similar AND the levels in your DAW giving you comfortable amounts of headroom as mentioned previously, that would be ideal.
By the way, the Forte allows the sort of direct monitoring I mentioned before for setting up the headphone mix but, rather than a knob on the box you have to use the software control that comes with the unit. Have a look at page 12-16 (mainly 15 and 16) of the manual for details on how to use this.
There's no hard and fast rule for setting up your gain staging but basically you don't want your pre amp high and your Focusrite low or vice versa. If you aim to have the gain on both units roughly similar AND the levels in your DAW giving you comfortable amounts of headroom as mentioned previously, that would be ideal.
By the way, the Forte allows the sort of direct monitoring I mentioned before for setting up the headphone mix but, rather than a knob on the box you have to use the software control that comes with the unit. Have a look at page 12-16 (mainly 15 and 16) of the manual for details on how to use this.