Volume & Signal Path-Part 1:Recording

One of the more challenging aspects of digital recording is controlling your levels. You want a strong level, to maximize signal to noise ratio, but too strong, and you get clipping, which introduces nasty pops, rather than the saturation that analog recording used to provide.
During the recording and mixing process, there are several places where clipping can occur, or your level may be too low.
In the following examples, I am going to attempt to outline how the signal travels through your DAW, and how best to manage that signal.
Because we have many different hardware configurations, there may be things here that do not apply to your particular set-up.
This is intended as a general guide, and is not a hard and fast set of rules.
First, we are going to look at recording audio.

1.A basic view of signal flow, end to end.

Here, we have a source, some form of pre-amp, input to the software, the software itself, an output, and finally, monitors or maybe headphones.
The Source. This is where it all starts. Any distortion introduced here will be faithfully reproduced throughout the chain.
By the same token, if this is too soft, it can be a struggle to get an acceptable level from the recorded track. Here, mic placement and technique is the key to starting with good sound.
The Pre-amp. This is your first gain stage. The pre-amp raises your signal from the very low level coming from the mic or instrument to a usable level that is well above the inherent noise in the electronic circuits. Here, you want to adjust the gain (may be labeled trim) to give a strong signal without introducing distortion.
Generally speaking, you should adjust your preamp Trim (or Gain, it could be labeled either way) to slightly below the point where the Clip (or Peak) indicator flashes.

In addition, on a mixer, adjust your strip levels and Main Out so that the meter shows peaks around 0db. The Peak (Clip) indicator here should never light up. These are also the controls you will use later when adjusting recording levels in MC.
If you are using am external mixer, adjust the level for the individual strip, and the main output, so that the level peaks around 0 on the loudest notes.
So far so good. Now we get into the part where things start to get a little hazy, the corelation between the input and recording level in your track.
You cannot adjust the recording level within MC or SHS (or Sonar). The level must be set by the software that controls your interface (sound card).
Here, we see the Input controls for the Presonus Firebox, E-MU0404, and the standard Windows Recording Control.

OK, so let's record something.
Open MC, and insert as many audio tracks as you need. Also, open your interface control, so it is available onscreen.
For this example, I am using two mics, an MXL991 and an MXL990 to record an acoustic guitar.
I will be recording the Left input as Mono to track 4, the Right input as Mono to track 5, and both inputs as Stereo to track 6.
You may not normally want to do this, but it serves to illustrate what you would see recording stereo or mono.
Let's do a sound check.
Arm your track(s) for Record. This sets the meters to monitor the incoming signal.
Strum ( or sing) a few bars at the loudest you will be playing. Watch your meters.
Ideally, you should see something like this:

If the level is too hot( meter showing red), adjust the slider to in your interface control to lower the incoming level.
If it it too low, raise the slider.
If you are using an external mixer, it's usually best to leave the interface control set to 0, and use the mixer to adjust your levels.

If all is good, click the record button.
As your track records, you should see strong, well defined waveforms appear on your track.

When you are done recording, turn off the Record Arm button. This will switch the meters to monitor playback.
In the following screen shot, the meters for track 4 and 5 show playback levels.
Track 6 is still monitoring the input, and even though the track is actually playing, the meter shows no activity.

So far, we have healthy audio tracks recorded.
In part 2, we will explore controlling your levels as you work through the mixing process.

Edit:to add preamp info

This is really great Bob! Lots of time and patience went into putting that together. It is definitely appreciated here.

I won't bombard you or the forum with questions on this (I do feel bad about that, but I'm trying to understand it all at the same time. Electronics was obviously not my field of expertise/study).

I did learn a couple of things. First, I was doing the right side/ left side recording, mainly for guitars, but I didn't realize you could also do a stereo track. I figured that would be considered as 3 inputs my MC so I never tried it.

The second thing I learned is I have to go back and read the manual on the mixer for the PreSonus because I have never used it. Never dawned on me to use it as part of setting up the volumes. I don't think the manual is very informative, but I will check it out. I might understand it better now than when I first bought it (I sure hope so!). I guess my only question that is I also have controls for the 2 preamps on the Firebox. Which should I be using, the software mixer or the controls on the Firebox. I also have controls for the main level (speakers) and headphones on the Firebox. There is also a playback to phones and mix to phones on the software mixer. So, I'll work on figuring all that out while you work on Part 2
.
Thanks again for doing this and I also look forward to Part 2!

hey bob, I'll put this up over on MT as well. great info!

amateuer,
Yes there will be a part 2. I'll be looking at the mix antrying to focus strictly on watching levels. That could get a bit tricky to package.
I wrestled with the layout on this one for a while.
Annette,
Keep asking questions. That's what inspired this.
Hopefully by breaking it down this way, it will be easier to understand.
I normally record right and left mono tracks myself. I just threw in the stereo track to show what it would look like.
I've never actually done it this way before, but you can record those two inputs to several tracks at the same time.
I played with this for a while after I recorded it, and by panning the two mono tracks as you normally would, you get a nice big guitar, plus a little infill from the stereo track.
Janet,
I was going to go trekking in Tibet, but decided to stay home and do this instead.
ok, Beagle, I think it's ready now.

ORIGINAL: 57Gregy

You (and some others) should be awarded SONAR Whatever The Latest Edition Is free of charge by Cakewalk.

I second that! As long as you don't jump ship to that forum.

I guess my only question that is I also have controls for the 2 preamps on the Firebox. Which should I be using, the software mixer or the controls on the Firebox.

Annette - BOTH of the controls are used in the signal path. My advice to you is to set the software mixer controls to 0dB on the INPUT and on the OUTPUT and then not adjust them any more. That way you have the same output from MC as you do at the output of the soundcard. With the INPUTS at 0dB, you should be able to leave those there and adjust the knobs on the soundcard itself with enough volume change to be able to control your input.

if you leave the software controls at 0dB, then you should have plenty of control using the knobs on the presonus.

Is this one of those places where we have to stand up and say "My name is Janet. I'm a hopeless spell-checker." If it is, 'My name is Janet..." I'm glad I'm not the only one though. And yes, it bugs me the most to see mistakes in my own posts!

Greg,
My spelling is good, but my keyboard doesn't always pay attention.
I found a few errors, but may have missed some.
Let me know what else you see. You can email me if you'd like.

Hope that helps, Annette - you should have plenty of control with the hardware knobs as long as you leave the inputs and outputs in the software mixer at 0dB.

Spelling and grammer are important to me as well - sometimes I wish there were a spell-checker in the forum. some forums have that feature.

I'm not so die hard that my posts need to look like a dissertation (yes, I had to spell check that word!) - I don't mind using "forum shortcuts" and abbreviations. and I don't mind run-ons or words that should be capitalized NOT be capitalized. but spelling is generally important to me.

I've always taught my children that spelling is more important to everyone's perception of your intelligence. If you can spell, you are perceived as being intelligent, maybe even more so than you might be. same for grammer (he says with an incomplete sentence!). grammer and spelling can give others a perception of your intelligence whether for good or bad. people who spell incorrectly or have poor grammer structure are perceived as being low intelligence and even "ignert" - whether it's true or not.

Boy, this thread sure got random. :-) And while we're talking about it, check the spelling of grammar, Reece.

Which brings up another totally unrelated point--speaking correctly. I've always tried to teach my boys to speak correctly (good grammar, I mean). Now my youngest son, who struggled in school and would be the first to admit he's not a student (and groaned when I corrected him), is correcting his wife's grammar. I think that's funny!

And yes, Bob--these darn keyboards!

That keyboard again!

does it just drive you nuts when you see spelling and grammar mistakes in newspapers, in magazines, on signs, things that are printed in volume?

Yes!
Sorry to hijack your thread RobertB, but I think we can delete our own posts, so if you want we can clean this up for you.
Cool, I noticed a feature in posts I never saw before; if you want to quote a poster, if you select the text and copy before you hit "Post Reply", it's automatically quoted when you do hit "PR". I didn't know that.
Sometimes it's the little things.....

You just love it Bob..and I'm pleased you do...Great stuff which is really appreciated...Hey Greg you say you are a spell checker....how about a signwriter that can't spell.
Its bad enough mis-spelling on here but can you imagine a 40 foot banner. I still have nightmares everytime I pass the town hall.
A dyslexic signwriter D'hoooo

Name names Alan - you know you have to

Lox good, Bagel