About ideal volume on guitar di track

[AllanD]

I'm not quite following - why does recording signals too hot affect the sound? And the hotter the signal, the better the SNR (not sure if you were saying that too or not). Also, bear in mind that because DI's are so absurdly dynamic, peaking at -3 of course doesn't mean that the overall level is anywhere near that hot. And "almost" is the key word there (even if it were to clip slightly on a massive palm mute transient, it's so quick I doubt it'd even be noticeable, similar to clipping a snare)



Yup, this has been my experience as well

http://www.massivemastering.com/blog/html/blog_files/Proper_Audio_Recording_Levels.html


It's what I've read, I'm not sure if it's right or not, but I don't want to risk it

 

[kramer1309]

hm.. somewhat made sense but i dunno.. anybody know whether its true or not?

 

[Metaltastic]

Nah, it makes sense, and normally when tracking anything else I keep it on the lower side level-wise, but I make the exception with DI's because a) as I mentioned, peak value is a whole lot different than RMS value, and b) tracking them hot is the only way to get the output level to the amp to match the level coming directly from a guitar. However, come to think of it, a cleaner way to do this would be to record quieter DI's and just boost the fader of the DI track when re-amping to get more signal, so I actually think I'm gonna do that from now on!

 

[colonel kurtz]

i've said this before, and i'll say it again...i STILL don't understand how you guys can track a DI signal at -3dbfs and not clip the preamp on the way in!!

 

[Metaltastic]

i've said this before, and i'll say it again...i STILL don't understand how you guys can track a DI signal PEAKING at -3dbfs and not clip the preamp on the way in!!

Beats me, I just go by the meters in Reaper for gauging the peak value, and the meters for the built-in preamps on my Onyx 400F (and old Onyx Satellite) never once go into the red! (I'd imagine they're set up to clip at pretty similar levels as the converters)

 

[colonel kurtz]

fuckin weird man

the meters on my 1640 hit the red around -12 or so

 

[Charles J]

However, come to think of it, a cleaner way to do this would be to record quieter DI's and just boost the fader of the DI track when re-amping to get more signal, so I actually think I'm gonna do that from now on!

That's what I do! I always try to make it a point to track everything around -18dB average w/peaks around -6. This comes in handy when doing drums and is just good engineering practice, IMO.

If my signal isn't loud enough to my amp when reamping, I'll just boost the fader and find some way to boost the signal in the DAW (either pulling the fader up OR grabbing the event and using the volume handle).

Either way, I don't want to clip my D/A! So, you gotta be careful, of course.

 

[kramer1309]

Nah, it makes sense, and normally when tracking anything else I keep it on the lower side level-wise, but I make the exception with DI's because a) as I mentioned, peak value is a whole lot different than RMS value, and b) tracking them hot is the only way to get the output level to the amp to match the level coming directly from a guitar. However, come to think of it, a cleaner way to do this would be to record quieter DI's and just boost the fader of the DI track when re-amping to get more signal, so I actually think I'm gonna do that from now on!

Do post results of the last..
Maybe even a marcus style shootout between quiter tracked di's and normal di's if you can borrow a splitter and another dibox!

 

[deLuther]

Boosting in software is not good idea, because (as mentioned before) 6 db means 1 bit of precision.
That`s why I trying to record with peaks at -3 dbfs - to get appropriate level without boost in DAW, boosting in hardware after interface does not mean loss of precision.
I dial my cheap mic pre to avoid clipping at first stage, then I turn output level up to get -3dbfs at peaks in DAW - no clipping, while VU-meter on pre shows that signal is hotter than 0 db. Before, I`m tried to get no more than 0 db at VU meter so I got around -6 dbfs in DAW. But, instead of boosting in DAW, hotter signal without clipping seems to be nicer idea

 

[Trevoire520]

I make sure to track with a decent amount of headroom (6-12dB) and afterwards I tend to normalise to -3dB so I get a decent level out of the DAW.

If I need more output from the DI track to the amp I just turn up the level on my tubescreamer.

 

[deLuther]

Normalization is nod good idea because of precision loss.