What level settings do you use to record?

[Fagulhakc]

Talking about using digital gear to record real instruments or vocals.

I've been reading a lot about how to set input levels to record on DAW.

In theory, you find ppl supporting the idea of recording "as hot as you can" with peaks around -5dBFS or even higher, other supporting that headroom idea and recording with peaks hitting around -18dBFS and ppl using the "mid point" and recording with -12dBFS peaks.

What I wanna know is the practical information.

What level do you guys look for when recording DI guitars, vocals and bass guitar?

Thanks

 

[Trevoire520]

Average level around -18dBFS, in Pro Tools I'm basically aiming for the top of the green bottom of the yellow. It's where your analogue stages work best, low noise floor, low distortion, full frequency response. Getting the signal in your DAW as hot as it can get without clipping means you're really overcooking the input at your preamp and converter, and they're really not going to sound their best running that hot, especially on cheaper equipment.

 

[greyskull]

The hot as possible argument is total bunk in this age of good 24 bit A/D converters.
In the 16 bit and tape days it had SOME grounding, but it's total shite now.

I can't remember the exact number I shoot for, but it's probably similar to what Trevoire said.

 

[drew_drummer]

Between -18dB and -12dB on the meters in Studio One.

 

[Terminus]

Same as above.

 

[LeSedna]

I start from all tracks being at -18 RMS / VU on tracks and then BUSes because of analogue emulations. You can set them up for lower levels if you really wanted but it works well in my opinion. And this ends up usually around -10/-12 RMS on the master maximum and being really sure the peak has quite a headroom too but it usually stays at -6dbFS or so.

It doesn't really matter as long as you have some good headroom so the mastering process has all the choices it needs. I see no interest in mixing super low because then the master engineer will just use a gain plugin to raise the level anyway.

So I found my own comfortable spot : -18 RMS on all tracks as a starting point and then I mix, I control snare transients, I deal with BUSes and my master mix is more or less -10 to -6 dB of room (peak). When the master is hotter than -18 RMS i just trim it if I am using an analogue emulation or use the in/out controls in the plugin (like in Slate's plugins, i's quite practical). From -12 to -X RMS or LU I just fire up Ozone's limiter and try to keep it as clean as possible while giving it the last few dB of loudness it needs to sit at a nice level.

If there are a lot of tracks, I aim at -18 on the BUSes as a start so it doesn't add up too high on the master right away. I try to anticipate.

I make a distinction between 2BUS processing and master processing, so after my 2BUS processing I aim at keeping something like 5/6 dB of headroom before the Mastering chain gets loaded.

 

[mva801]

I feel like there must be 50 threads on this subject. Search gain staging and read up. Learn the difference between peak and RMS, make sure your RMS levels are around -20 to -14 most of the time, and don't worry too much about it. Sharper transients don't read well on VU meters, and they are going to peak a bit higher. Keep drums from peaking more than about -5 and you should be fine.

You can waste a ton of time nitpicking about source material sitting exactly at -18. Most sources are pretty dynamic and go much higher and lower at times. Especially vocals.

 

[DavePiatek]

I do -12dB (sample peak metering). Always seems to leave me with plenty of headroom at the mix bus.