PC Recording and Audio Levels

[Konxert]

I Finally pumped up my system to be on a fair enough level to do some good PC recording.....have a sound card designed for recording and a fast CPU with a good amount of RAM....

One problem I always ran into when recording on PC was that when I recorded the guitar, it was a pretty low volume so I would have to reduce the volume on other things such as midi in order to match the low guitar volume......and when I increased the volume of the guitar recording(s) too much it would lose a lot of it's quality and sound overdriven.....

So I'm assuming some peopleon these boards here have some PC recording experience and I am curious to know how you get your recordings to be a good volume but keep their quality....My recording volume is about half of that a guitar heard on a standard CD recording from an album....

Any suggestions? It's about the only wall I've run into in terms of audio quality.

I run the guitar to a pedal into a guitar in jack on a mini rack mount the sound card has.

 

[sumairetsu]

Have you checked the input levels on your OS? You could have the volume set too low without realizing it. Also, check the software settings for whatever music program you're using.

Remember, always start with the small stuff.

 

[Rockgurl]

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Advanced tab. Make sure the Line In level is up to 100% (in fact make them all 100%). That should help. How are you recording the guitar? Are you going straight into the back of the computer or are you mic-ing up an amp?

 

[Moonshield]

Home recordings are always quieter than studio recordings. While I'm no expert, I believe that the mastering process is what helps to get music to the volume you're trying to achieve. As you're obviously aware, turning your inputs too high is going to cause clipping and ruin the recording. So really, the best option is just to crank your speakers up a bit more than usual, and then you can get your mix sounding the way you'd like.

 

[Konxert]

I have a soundcard with a mini rack mount that has a guitar sized input jack, Im running straight into that.....I also realized recently that the input is at 50% but I failed to relaize that when its halfway along the bar for this soundcards software, it is at 0db, 100%....I was shooting it to the top so it had a huge gain, which was gettign me some of my distorted results...


I'm getting the hang of it...seems like it's trial and error until I get the sound I want.

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

yah, clipping is bad guy. run the input signal as hot as you can without clipping.

louder digitally recorded track = more resolution, if you record something at too low a volume you don't use the full resolution and you get sine waves cut off into square waves, which is shit.

thats an over simplification but the general theory is sound.

 

[Erik]

Though if you record at 24 bits you don't have to worry nearly as much about recording with hot levels as opposed to recording at 16 bits

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

true innit, but still, loud is metal and metal is loud and yeah you get the idea

 

[Konxert]

What about sampling rate....I have it set at the default level of 48khz and it can go to 96khz....whats the purpose exactly of the sampling rate

So...I should be recording at 24 bits? Can someone kinda explain to me the purpose of bits and khz and how it benefits the recording process and what I should be set at?

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

sampling rate increases the range of tonal spectrum basically, even people like Andy Sneap only use 44.1, after that you're adding frequencies than only bats and dogs can hear anyway.

Set it to 44.1 / 24 and you'll be fine, you'll always want the bitrate at TWICE, at least, what you intend to dither it down to. So if you're gonna throw it on a cd, they're 16bit, by starting out with 24 you're giving yourself some leeway there so when it gets dithered you aren't losing detail.

 

[sumairetsu]

The sampling rate is the number of video frames per second that are taken of a particular sound sample. A higher sampling rate will result in higher resolution of the sound, especially in the highs (treble). Take the sampling rate that you're recording at and divide it by 2 and you'll get approximately the highest treble frequency that will be reproduced on the recording (i.e. 44.1 kHz will get you a recording with highs up to 22,000 Hz).

44.1 kHz is the sampling rate for compact discs.

48 kHz is slightly higher and allows for better sound quality capture while recording; the sound, when reduced back to 44.1 kHz, can sound overly glassy (like the treble is up too high) unless you know how to reduce the highs.

96 kHz is used for DVD Audio.

128 kHz is SACD audio.

44.1 kHz is the recommended sampling rate for home recording.