tracking at -18dBFS

[colton]

Thanks for the reply.

What I found confusing about it was that I was mistaking db's for dbfs. If my guitar track is peaking at -3 db, than that's around -22 dbfs or so correct? So, I'm fine then (I guess). I just try to make sure the source sounds good and doesn't clip. I never had any problems until I started reading too much into gain staging. Now I can't help but feel I'm doing something "wrong", but I'm most likely making things out to be more complicated than they actually are.

 

[B36arin]

No, -3dB in a normal DAW = -3dBfs.

 

[colton]

So, they are synonymous? :/

And what's a "normal" DAW? I use Cubase 4.

 

[Trevoire520]

dBFS is Decibels Full Scale. It's a digital measurement, measured down from 0dBFS (digital maximum, this is the level at which the signal clips) so -1dbfs is 1 decibel from clipping, -6dbfs is 6 decibels from clipping etc etc. This is what the -3, -6, -24 etc etc dB in your DAW meters is.

The other measurement is VU which stands for Volume Units. This is a measurement for analogue equipment. Generally 0VU in the analogue world is equal to -18dBFS in digital world. (Though it depends on the calibration of your converters)
0VU is where analogue equipment is designed to work. Above 0VU your signal will begin to distort, below 0VU you'll start to get a higher noise floor.

Please note, it's not quite as black and white as this.^ As how significant this distortion/noise is varies depending on the quality of your gear.
Good equipment can go above 0VU without distorting, and go well below 0VU without having significant noise issues.

I originally wrote a big spraff to go in here about headroom, use-able headroom, distortion, clipping, etc but I'm afraid it might scare and confuse some of the newer guys who are already struggling, so probably best to keep it simple for now.

 

[Trevoire520]

Come to think of it I remember a while back when I was using an analogue desk for preamps into the line inputs of my interface & converter and I was quite confused as to why I had to crank my pre's well into the yellow to get a hot signal into my DAW.

This is before I knew about the stuff I've just been spraffing about above. I ended up aiming for 0VU on the desk and just dealing with the lower level in my DAW as I knew running the signal so hot on the desk couldn't be good, but couldn't understand why there was such a big difference between my DAW and my desk.

Around the time I moved to rack pre's I read this article:
http://www.massivemastering.com/blog/index_files/Proper_Audio_Recording_Levels.php

So I stuck to keeping my recording levels a bit lower. After all it made sense, everything in the signal path up to the conversion process is a analogue component. Hell even your converters have an AAF in them which is a analogue filter. Why push all that stuff above it's optimal operating range?

Everything has been sounding better since I started recording at lower levels, though to be honest I've only just made the connection while thinking about it right now.
My tracks became cleaner, punchier and more open. It's a subtle thing when applied to one track, keep in mind we're talking about low level distortion here, not clipping. (though that is something you risk when tracking hotter) But when that small amount of distortion is present on every track within a 48 track mix, things can easily get small sounding, and you'll be messing with eq and compression all day long wondering why.

I don't quite know what the point in this post is. Just thinking and realised how I'd come about my current reasoning for what level I track at. Maybe it will help someone understand a bit better, maybe it wont.