Confusion w/ Volume Faders & Peaking

[Tamarocker88]

I'm just responding to one of the first sentences in the OP and letting you know it's perfectly fine to adjust the master fader, as long as you're aware of what's going on with your gain staging.

Thanks for the reply Melodeath. The varying info confused me. I was thinking that I was supposed to be leaving the faders for everything at unity and never touch them.

Essentially, I should record DI guitar (or any track, for that matter) without any processing and as hot as I'd like as long as it's without ever clipping. Then after I have the recorded audio I can add all signal processing and then I can move the track's fader as necessary to get it to the right peak level.

 

[musickey]

Yup thats it man

 

[greyskull]

THAT is the loudest i record IN tools... a smidge over but around there works well for me.

 

[pikachu69]

Have a read of this M8

http://www.massivemastering.com/blog/index_files/Proper_Audio_Recording_Levels.php

Its got some great info that may help you even though it sounds like you are sorting it out. I found it very helpful.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Leave the fader at unity (0). Record your track as hot as you please (whether you subscribe to -18dBFS, -6dB peaks, as hot as you can without clipping, or whatever pleases you...). Then once you're recorded, feel free to move the fader as much as you want.

Sorry for the confusion Tamarocker.....but, yeah - this is what I meant when I said let the faders at 0. (While tracking), then afterwards do what you must with them.

 

[RedDog]

Like we all say at some point or another, as long as you're not clipping, you're fine. What I do, myself is get ALL of my peaks at about the same level, say around -10, and use subtractive EQ to carve out what I don't need that just eats up headroom. Then I check my levels, listen for the crap I need to fix.

Just curious, what's the fixation with peaking at -24 with your guitar tracks??

 

[Tamarocker88]

Like we all say at some point or another, as long as you're not clipping, you're fine. What I do, myself is get ALL of my peaks at about the same level, say around -10, and use subtractive EQ to carve out what I don't need that just eats up headroom. Then I check my levels, listen for the crap I need to fix.

Just curious, what's the fixation with peaking at -24 with your guitar tracks??

I've seen in many places around the forums and elsewhere that it is suggested to record the bass drum at -18dB, mold everything around that, and to generally record guitars at -24.