
tubedude
New member
Todays tip:
Track it hot!
What does hot mean? Tubes are warmed up? A/C turned off? I mean that AFTER going through your simple-as-possible signal chain to the recorder, try to get everything as close to red as possible without ever going over. On tape decks (4 tracks etc) I ususally go into the red a little, as the tape is sometimes forgiving and can actually sound cool. Depends on the recorder. Redlining a digital recorder/converter can be quite ugly and you'll know when you do it. If you have something that goes over every now and then, insert a compressor and take off that extra little peak so as to keep everything as hot as possible. Some things might need quite a bit of squashing with the compressor. Use as little as possible, though. Less is more.
This goes for drums also. Here's what I see often in inexperienced setups...
lets say we have kick, snare, 2 toms mic'ed and 2 overhead mics, each mic going to its own track on your DAW. People have a tendency to "pre-mix" the drums during tracking by getting a good level on what drum you want the loudest (snare or kick?) and recording the others lower. NO NO NO!!!
Record each drum just shy of clipping/redline (again, insert a compressor if you need it). Recording everything at maximum input aids your signal-to-noise ratio, along with tracking some instruments as loud as possible. After you have tracked them, then adjust the volumes of each track appropriately. If you do not do this already, this will be an improvement!
Do this with every track, from whispers to screams, make sure everything is good and hot. Adjust volume AFTER you track it.
And last... back to the signal chain thing again... make sure EVERYTHING in your signal chain is pushing a hot signal too. If it comes in at -2 db, it should come out the same or real close and into the next piece. Keep it hot all the way to the recorder.
More tomorrow!
Peace,
Paul
Track it hot!
What does hot mean? Tubes are warmed up? A/C turned off? I mean that AFTER going through your simple-as-possible signal chain to the recorder, try to get everything as close to red as possible without ever going over. On tape decks (4 tracks etc) I ususally go into the red a little, as the tape is sometimes forgiving and can actually sound cool. Depends on the recorder. Redlining a digital recorder/converter can be quite ugly and you'll know when you do it. If you have something that goes over every now and then, insert a compressor and take off that extra little peak so as to keep everything as hot as possible. Some things might need quite a bit of squashing with the compressor. Use as little as possible, though. Less is more.
This goes for drums also. Here's what I see often in inexperienced setups...
lets say we have kick, snare, 2 toms mic'ed and 2 overhead mics, each mic going to its own track on your DAW. People have a tendency to "pre-mix" the drums during tracking by getting a good level on what drum you want the loudest (snare or kick?) and recording the others lower. NO NO NO!!!

Do this with every track, from whispers to screams, make sure everything is good and hot. Adjust volume AFTER you track it.
And last... back to the signal chain thing again... make sure EVERYTHING in your signal chain is pushing a hot signal too. If it comes in at -2 db, it should come out the same or real close and into the next piece. Keep it hot all the way to the recorder.
More tomorrow!
Peace,
Paul