track level/distortion question

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bethanyb321

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hello im starting to get into using meters to try avoid distortion and one thing im not sure of. Lets say example i have a vst synth track with a meter on insert, the meter does not peak over 0. but than i add lets say a compressor after the compressor it is over 0, but than i lower the channel volume fader and with a meter on a post fader insert it is under 0. So is this track distorting?

thanks
 
thanks but that video didnt help me, i understand about recorded audio and clipping but im confused unclipped source into fx itb that pushes its level, if you could just please answer the question above, all will be clear
 
How could anybody possibly answer that question?

IS IT distorting? Only you can tell that (or upload a sample of it so we can hear it).

Why you have an individual synth track even in the same ZIP code as "0" (I'm *ASSUMING* you mean -0.0dBFS as opposed to 0dBVU or something, but you weren't clear on that) is another story altogether.
 
^^^Massive nailed it.

You absolutely do not need individual tracks at anything like that level. Turn it down. Problem goes away.
 
Maybe i'm wrong, so please correct me if i am, but i think what he's trying to ask is "is the audio distorting somewhere along the path?". For example, back in the analogue domain, if i had a track that the post fader meters said was nowhere near clipping, then inserted a compressor on that track with the output of the compressor too high, the pre fader signal would be show clipping, but i could happily turn the fader down so the post fader meter reading was fine. However, in this case, we would hear the distortion as the single is clipping somewhere along the chain.

In the digital domain, as Ethan Winer discussed a while back (at least, i'm pretty sure it was ethan. again, correct me if i'm wrong), in these scenarios simply turning down the fader would solve the problem (i forget the exact reasoning but, in my head, it was something about only being able to hear the distortion if the output was clipping)
 
At this point there isn't nearly enough information -- And the information that's there doesn't make an awful lot of sense. He's inserting "a compressor" (what sort of compressor is unknown and if it's a modeling compressor, it's being pummeled by freakishly high levels and could be the cause of the distortion). The volume is higher after the compressor...? What's he doing? And then a post-fade meter (assuming after the compressor also) is lower than -0.0 but it's distorting.

TLI.
 
Tbh I'm just jumping to conclusions about what he's asking, but i think the OP was using examples as hypotheticals trying to route out why in a DAW mix the pre-fader level on any given track could be clipping but by turing the channel fader down he wasn't hearing any distorting because the main output was no longer clipping.

Again, as i said, i'm jumping wildly to conclusions and as you rightly said, it's not worded particularly clearly which doesn't help anyone
 
sorry if i wasnt clear, talking about how justsomeguy mentioned if the audio is being distorted somewhere along the chain in that kind of senario. compressor just example could be any fx like lets say some eq boost. a level meter before the eq boost shows true peaks no clipping, but put the meter after the eq boost prefader it is clipping but meter on postfader it is not clipping since lowered the track volume. Is somewhere in the chain the audio distorting and output of the fx needs to be turned down till meter prefader peaks is under 0? thanks
 
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In a daw that uses floating point math, no, you aren't distorting unless the main output tries to go over 0dbfs.

However, it is really bad gain staging to have anything going over on individual channels. Its a bad habit to get into and , if you ever try it in the real world (running live sound), you will get yourself in a lot of trouble.
 
in that case indeed been caught up in a very bad habit changing now, thanks so much :)
 
Yeah Bethany, just turn things way down. I understand now that your question was sort of hypothetical. But you'll never have to even worry about that if you record and mix at much lower levels. No reason to be anywhere near 0db in digital.
 
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