black aspirin said:
I use a Roland VS2400 recorder, and I set input levels at just below the red.
STOP THAT - (Oh Geez, doesn't anybody get the basics anymore?).
You're recording WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too hot. Line level on that unit is going to be probably around -18dBFS or so. You're *overdriving* the signal on the input. You don't want to be even *close* to "the red" zone. You want to be around 0dBVU. NOT -0dBFS. 0dBVU is going to be "around" -18dBFS at the input.
black aspirin said:
I record direct from a drum machine, and usually one bass track direct as well. For guitar and distorted bass tracks, I use two Shure SM57's and a Beta52, setting levels just below the red. I've tried close miking, a few feet away, 6-7 feet away and combinations of all three.
Same thing. You're *crushing* the preamps with signal.
And you're probably mixing way too loud also... But that's for another thread... You have headroom. You *NEED* headroom. Use it.
YOU WILL NOT GET A LOUD RECORDING FROM RECORDING YOUR TRACKS TOO HOT. Actually, it will normally work against you. As you add all that distortion (small amounts on ever track adds up to a lot of sh*t later on) and lose all that clarity and focus, you'll wind up with a muddy, small, pinched sounding mix that won't have the ability to handle the "volume abuse" of the mastering stage (which is where you'll be concentrating on volume - unfortunately).
black aspirin said:
Yet the finished product is at very low volume. I've even had tracks with horrible clipping, yet you had to turn the stereo up twice as loud just to hear the mix. What gives?
You shouldn't be concentrating on sheer volume during tracking and mixing anyway. You shouldn't expect an unmastered mix to compete with commercial recordings. You shouldn't expect (how do I say this) "novice" mixes to have the same volume potential as recordings that were made by teams of industry professionals either. In any case, you're shooting yourself in the foot before you even load the gun here.
black aspirin said:
I had the same trouble with my previous recorder, a Fostex MR-8.
And you'll have the same problem with every piece of gear you own until you start using it
as it's designed to work.
Either start ignoring your digital meters and use the VU meters on the preamps or figure that you're looking for signals that ride around -18 or -16dBFS at the track level. A transient here or there that whacks against -10 or -9dBFS isn't going to hurt much, but the bulk of the signal should ride around -18dBFS or so. Mixing, more or less the same thing. Maybe a whisker hotter. You should be able to start the mix with everything at unity and NOT have problematic clipping. You'll probably have to turn things down a bit, but not like you'd have to with ultra-hot signals (which you'd probably have to turn down to - oh, around -18 or so to prevent problematic clipping. Getting the picture?).
When I'm running mixes, I try to keep the very top peak below -6dBFS with the "bulk" of the level riding around -18 or -20dBFS or so. Plenty hot, yet a decent amount of headroom for the mastering stage.
And NO - This ISN'T going to make your mixes louder. Unmastered mixes aren't that loud. Unfortunately, "loud" has become rather important to some people for some strange reason. But that's still saved for later. Generally speaking, you want to keep, to have, to hold, to cherish as much headroom as you can at every single step of the game *UNTIL* all that headroom is abused & used during the final stages.
Again, I hate the volume wars passionately. But almost without question, the mixes that leave here the loudest are the ones that came in the quietest. And when I say "quiet" I mean "normal." 0dBVU has been a standard for over 60 years. Digital didn't change that. It was designed around it.
) 
