Getting a consistent level when recording

[thisnameistaken]

I've noticed while recording today that if I have to emphasise a note on the E string I come down on it like a ton of bricks and clip the preamp. Annoying when the rest of the take is OK.

When you are recording, do you just give yourself more headroom on the preamp just in case, or do you use compression to stop it happening, or do you just have much better technique than me?

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1022944' date='Nov 13 2010, 10:00 PM']I've noticed while recording today that if I have to emphasise a note on the E string I come down on it like a ton of bricks and clip the preamp. Annoying when the rest of the take is OK.

When you are recording, do you just give yourself more headroom on the preamp just in case, or do you use compression to stop it happening, or do you just have much better technique than me? [/quote]
are you not mic'ing anything and just using d.i.? if so, might be too hot input signal ?

[danlea]

Just give yourself more leeway - if it's a half-decent preamp you should be able to do this without worrying about your signal-to-noise ratio. If you have a compressor on the preamp then feel free to apply some very mild compression straight off, but this is more often used for vocals than for bass guitar.

[thisnameistaken]

Yeah the pres are pretty decent, I think it's just old habits from years of making do with cheap gear.

Cheers.

[51m0n]

[quote name='danlea' post='1023026' date='Nov 13 2010, 11:52 PM']Just give yourself more leeway - if it's a half-decent preamp you should be able to do this without worrying about your signal-to-noise ratio. If you have a compressor on the preamp then feel free to apply some very mild compression straight off, [b]but this is more often used for vocals than for bass guitar[/b].[/quote]


Errr, no it isnt!

Compression whilst tracking bass is pretty standard fair, but from the OP's original question he may be far better off turning the preamp down to a point where he definitely will not clip the preamp, and just maybe setting up a hard limiter at 0dB (ie at the point of clipping).

That should help catch any occasional peak. Plus it wont effect anything under that level at all, since the threshold is so high. You'd need a pretty good limiter to manage that in hardware, I regularly use an series 1 Focusrite Octopre set to as hard a limit as it can manage on the highest threshold, to catch the odd drum transient on the way down to a HD24, and it does a great job. Having said that with properly set up gain staging for the digital workld that just shouldn't ever happen.

The truth is that if you are recording 24 bit (you are recording 24bit right?) then you should aim for your biggest peaks being at about -6dB - unless you have appallingly noisey kit. Those transient spikes will then never bother you.

[thisnameistaken]

Listening back I think the reason I kept going over was because I was struggling to hear myself in a couple of places. But setting a limiter at 0dB is a good idea, I never thought of that.

[algmusic]

[quote name='51m0n' post='1024350' date='Nov 15 2010, 10:14 AM']Errr, no it isnt!

Compression whilst tracking bass is pretty standard fair, but from the OP's original question he may be far better off turning the preamp down to a point where he definitely will not clip the preamp, and just maybe setting up a hard limiter at 0dB (ie at the point of clipping).

That should help catch any occasional peak. Plus it wont effect anything under that level at all, since the threshold is so high. You'd need a pretty good limiter to manage that in hardware, I regularly use an series 1 Focusrite Octopre set to as hard a limit as it can manage on the highest threshold, to catch the odd drum transient on the way down to a HD24, and it does a great job. Having said that with properly set up gain staging for the digital workld that just shouldn't ever happen.

The truth is that if you are recording 24 bit (you are recording 24bit right?) then you should aim for your biggest peaks being at about -6dB - unless you have appallingly noisey kit. Those transient spikes will then never bother you.[/quote]

+1