actually since we are recording in digital and at 24 bits there is no reason to record as loud as you can with out clipping anymore. That was what you had to do in the analog days to make sure the audio was up over the noise floor of tape or you would hear the tape hiss during what you were recording. You record at lower levels you have more room to bring tracks up in the mix before they clip and more flexibility with compression and other dynamics effects.
As for the original question. stop trying to monitor what is in the DAW and listen to the direct monitoring from the interface. you should have enough level there without having to crank everything up. Unless you have a reverb or something else on the track that you want to monitor yourself through while recording, there is really no benefit to using the input monitor in your DAW over the direct monitor of the interface. But if you insist on monitoring through the DAW, then try putting a gain plug in in one of the insert slots. On Nov 13, 2012, at 9:09 PM, Chris Norman <chris.norm...@googlemail.com> wrote: > OK, no offense, but I got bored of reading half way through the message, but > here it is: > > I'm not a pro, but I always thought you got the original signal as loud as > possible without clipping. Personally, I head for as close to 0db on that > gain indicator as possible, usually stopping level testing at about -3db, to > account for the fact that people usually sing louder with the backing in > their ears. No clue how you get anything done at -10db, but maybe I'm > completely wrong. > > If that's still not loud enough, turn the fader right up, no one cares of > that fuzzes, then, if you still don't have enough, once you've got your > initial level set, compress away, use the fatten or brick wall presets, and > you should be fine. > > Anyways, sorry if I missed your point, but all the extra jabber you put in > your messages means about 50 paragraphs of "whatever whatever, this is > completely by the point", and I'm bored out of my mind, but I think paragraph > 3 said it all. > > HTH, > > Take care, > > Chris Norman. > <chris.norm...@googlemail.com> > > > > > On 14 Nov 2012, at 02:01, "Christopher-Mark Gilland" <clgillan...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> OK, this may seem like quite an elementary question, and a lot of you >> probably are gonna look at me and think I'm nuts for asking, but here's my >> situation. >> >> I have a pare of head phones which I've been using for a while now. I'm not >> gonna sit here and lie to you guies. They're IFrogs. They're not >> studio-grade by any theory of the spectrom. I do have a pare that is studio >> grade, that probably in the days costed roughly 3 or 400 bucks, but those >> things literally speaking are about 20 years old, and have gone through so >> much wear and tare that the headband is becoming loose, and the left ear >> piece is drooping down off my ear, no matter how many times I readjust it's >> hinge. Anyway, that's totally aside the point... >> >> Basically, here's the deal. The IFrogs I have are sort of noise cancelling, >> but not really. You'd think this would be a good thing in some cases, but >> it actually's not helping matters. The thing is, even with them on, my >> voice, whether singing, or talking is not hardly canceled/muffled at all. >> Because of this, I've honestly just learned to get used to the problem I'm >> facing, and play devils advocate, and just say whatever, I'll deal with it. >> >> Basically, the thing is, I always process my vocals *after!* I have them >> recorded. Never during. I find that if I try to do it in realtime, for >> one, I can't always until the vocal track is totally laid down determine >> what things need to be tweeked. The problem however is, when I was tought >> initially by Kevin, as well as others about recording vocals, I was told you >> always always always! want to record at a low level, then use gain >> compensation like a limiter, or say, a compressor etc. to bring the level up >> to adiquit range. With this said, my technique personally, is I always try >> keeping my vocals on the input level somewhere in the neighborhood of -12 to >> -10 at the most, DB. I'm talking about the level that I see just >> immediately one vo+right arrow to the right of the volume up down slider on >> each track. I try not to let it peek above -10 at the absolutely most, and >> really, that's for me even a bit overkill. Normally, I shoot for around -12 >> if I can get within several decimal ranges from there, like 12-3, or 12.5, >> somewhere around there. Obviously, this is before I apply any dynamics, or >> e queueing or the like. The issue is, once I hit shift+R to arm my track >> for recording, obviously, at that level of -12DB, I'm hardly gonna hear >> anything through my monitors. I know I could turn up the headphone monitor >> dial on my interface, but even doing that, I'm having to run it darned near >> wide open to hear anything. Yeah, I can run the output volume slider on the >> track in PT up to a higher level, but even with it as high as it'll go at >> +12DB, it's barely audible until I run vocal compression. Basically I use >> the compresser/limiter dyns3 plugin, and I change none of the parameters, >> but I use the vocal leveler preset, which is under the librarian menu inside >> the vocals sub menu. Even doing that though, I'm having to run my level >> almost to +12DB on the slider on the track strip within PT. Not that that >> is a problem, as I can run the music way down, to meet that of the vocal, >> then just pop a master fader and bring everything back up in the final mix, >> but the problem is with my monitorring through the headphones. Being that >> without processing anything, I hardly can hear my vocals at all, and if I >> make it loud enough that I can, then I clip like the holy virgin Mary! >> Parden the pun for you religious folks... LOL! I just don't exactly know >> how would be best to work around this. >> >> I'm using a Blue Bluebird microphone without the shockmount, as my stand >> won't support it, plus the windscreen that came with the mike. Then I'm >> using phantom power through the mono xlr input on my interface, which is an >> M-Audio Fast Track C400. ProTools 10.0 standard, on Snow Leopard 10.6.8, >> interfacing via USB, with the correct M-Audio drivers installed, and a white >> stocked 13 inch macbook mid 2010. Any help is greatly appreciated. I just >> need to know how we can get my mike on the monitor, without clipping ramped >> up to a level where it can be audible, as I don't wanna just go by well, >> it's armed, I know it's recording, I can hear myself through the ear muffs. >> No... I wanna literally hear exactly what's going into the DAW. >> >> Thank you kindly, >> >> Christopher-Mark Gilland. >> Founder of CLG Productions >> >> Blog: >> http://www.clgproductions.org >> >> Podcast: >> http://clgproductions.podhoster.com >> >> E-mail: >> ch...@clgproductions.com >> >> IMessage/Facetime: >> theblindmusic...@att.net >> >> Windows Live Messenger: >> ch...@blindperspectives.net >> >> Twitter: >> @gilland_chris >> >> Facebook: >> http://www.facebook.com/christopher.gilland >> >> Skype: >> twinklesfriend2007 >> >> Send me a fax from any standard fax machine: >> 704-697-2069 >> >> Google Voice: (Please use sparingly): >> 980-272-8570 >> >> >
