Why not use a trem plugin on the music track and turn it down until it feels under the microphone?
From: ptaccess@googlegroups.com <ptaccess@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Christopher Gilland Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2019 12:23 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: I don't know how to deal with this gain staging issue in ProTools, please please help! Does that work though with monitoring in my cans before recording? That's the main issue. I know how to turn it back up after it's recorded, but the issue isn't after recorded. It's before. I'm trying to get it where at such a low level during the actual tracking process, I can hear what I need to hear through my cans without having to crank them to high heaven to compensate for the lower input signal. Chris. On 12/12/2019 12:19 PM, TheOreoMonster wrote: I am surprised they gave you that complicat setup, especially considering iTunes doesn’t give you a way to export tracks once the volume has been lowered on them. Just use clip gain to lower the instrumental track and it basically does everything Sweetwater told you to do in one simple step. On Dec 12, 2019, at 12:14 PM, Christopher Gilland <clgillan...@gmail.com <mailto:clgillan...@gmail.com> > wrote: Slau, What Sweetwater actually told me is, lower the karaoke track in iTunes before importing it to PT. I'm not totally sure how to do that, but anyway, then, once that is lowered to fit my vocal level, import into PT, then add my vocal track, but here's the catch. They told me, then, also add a stereo master fader. Then, take that master fader, and only use it as a gain adder. Meaning, you're not really per sé doing anything with the master fader more than using it to add gain. Then, move that master fader volume from it's default 0DB location back up to reach the normal audible level. Presto! Done! I was always under the impression you really don't want a master fader though unless you're literally doing mastering type techniques. Or is that just it though: you kind of *are!* doing a mastering technique by doing this. All be it, you're not really doing anything substantial with the fader more than adding gain, but... still... Is that a way to go, or like me, can you see some potential problems with this method. I'm not really planning to add any final processing to the over all master mix like compression, dithering, final e queueing etc. Chris. On 12/12/2019 11:27 AM, Slau Halatyn wrote: Turn down the mastered track to a manageable level to accommodate your vocal recording. Once you've recorded the vocal, process the vocal to a comparable quality of compression and remix the two. You'll probably end up having to limit your vocal some if the music was mastered particularly hot. On Dec 12, 2019, at 11:21 AM, Christopher Gilland <clgillan...@gmail.com <mailto:clgillan...@gmail.com> > wrote: Guys, we've discussed this before, I think, quite some time back, but the answers I got were kind of vague, and honestly, and this is of no offense to any of you all, weren't very helpful at the time. That's no fault of you all. It might have just been my knowledge/experience at that time was not of such that I could fully grasp the concepts. Here is the situation again though. Trust me, too. I've Googled like crazy. I spent over about 3 hours last night Youtubing, and just Googling in general and am coming up pretty much empty handed. I normally record lead vocals on top of already purchased instrumental tracks, so I'm not really normally working with stems. Once in a while, I'll do something which takes more than 2 tracks, one for the music, one for my vofal, but that's rare. Regardless, this is occuring. In the past, I made a really really bad habbit of cranking my input gain on the mike input way up. Well, OK, fine. Not way up, but up enough to get good audible level going into PT. I obviously needed the level to be balanced with the music track. Problem is, that music track usually would have been mastered at gain unity 0, which you know, anything above that, you're clipping. This means anything I drove on top of the music track, that's gonna push my master over that 0 no no limit. But! I had to. Or so I thought. It's the only way I could get any good volume on my mike input. So, a few things. First my hardware. This way you know what we're working with. This interface is popular enough, surely you all know enough at least about it to help. I'm running a Focusrite scarlet 2I2 interface, and the first generation of a Blue Bluebird microphone. Let me be clear. This is the Bluebird, not the baby bottle. Again, the first gen, not the 2nd, nor the beta. Now, I'm trying to break that habbit of running my gain so hot. I'm finding that with where my input dial on the scarlet now is set, I'm on my peeks hitting probably around -13DB or so on average, and again, that's on the loudest peeks of my vocals. Obviously, that's much much better. The problem is, when recording, obviously having the level that low, I can't hear myself hardly at all in my cans. I normally have to get around -2 to 0DB in my peek meter on the output of the vocal track in PT before I can really hear myself well.. Also, when playing things back, it's barely audible. Obviously, same problem with my keyboard using a virtual synth, or for that mind, patching it directly in the scarlet. As for my vocal, I get that to hear it well in my cans, and on the final mix I could pop a compressor on the vocal, like the Gray compressor, and set it to a preset like steady, which very very significantly does boost the volume. The only issue is, no, I'm not clipping, but adding compression for the simple reason to boost that output gain is a horrible! idea in most cases. It's adding color, sometimes saturation, etc. that I definitely do not want into the mix taking away the natural beauty of the vocal characteristics. Yes, I could get a pre like a cloud lifter, but that's gonna present the same issue. You turn up that input, bam! now you're clippen again. I don't think the issue is on my input side. - I'm fully convinced of that. This is an output thing. As level wize, my peek meter in PT is showing just fine at -13 roughly. I know I also could turn down the music track. Wayyyyy down. Then, add a stereo master fader track, and turn it's output volume slider way way up to compensate, but is that really the best methodology? I have to run that thing with no plugs on the master fader up to nearly positive 8 or 9 DB to get the volume back to normal comfortable listening. Remember. I'm trying to compensate for that lower -13DB level going in. I don't think the Scarlet has a separate IO path output just for headphones alone, so I can't exactly create a bus in the IO settings, then send to it individually creating a submix. On the master fader though, again, going to +8 or 9 DB... yeah! That's barely giving any headroom at all. Maybe I have a ton on the mike, but, yeah. I get I could turn up the output level itself on the vocal track but is that really a safe thing to do? I was always told you wana try keeping your vocal tracks output volume sliders as close to that default 0DB as possible. Only interact with Voiceover on those sliders and crank them as a very last resort. I'm told you really wanna be using your master, not the level of the mike tracks. Basically all I'm trying to do is keep things at that -13 average, yet get them loud enough to hear them through the mix. I could just crank up the cans volume knob on the scarlet, or the main output volume fed to my speakers, but then, again, I'm gonna have to then crank things almost to the point of normal blaring level which means if I do anything listening to a regular mp3 outside PT, or try doing anything with Voiceover, etc. Yowel! Lookout! Can you say, ow, my aching ears? I just don't know how to deal with this. I'm kind a damned if I do, and I'm damned catch22 if i don't. Chris. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Pro Tools Accessibility" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to <mailto:ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com> ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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