Jeff Evans


I will let you off Mike for that but there is no excuse for shark though!  

Any moral high ground you had instantly evaporated after you misspelled my name 

Dave King


Interesting...  Looks like I have some detective work to do.

I just disabled all plug-ins, played the project and the audio level is 0 until the music begins to play.

This suggests that a plug or plugs is introducing the noise.

I'm running the Slate VCC on all tracks and buses and now wonder if it is the culprit.

Got some experimenting to do...

Thanks.

Hi Dave,
 
To answer your question, your lead in space should read -INF and should have 0 noise. To do this, just run some automation on the dead space and have it go from -INF to 0dB on the track at the start of the song. You can do that on the end too or of course do a fade or smooth ends fade for best results.
 
You could also slip edit the track but just make sure to lightly put a fade on the end so you don't get a pop/click sound. When you export the audio, the dead space will show up, but it will be completely silent.
 
This is gonna sound weird to you, but here's how I judge how much lead in space to leave in. I press the space bar hard on my keyboard. You know how it makes a click CLICK sound...this is what I hear in my head.
 
Click click - bang, music in. The - stands for roughly 1/2 second in between the click click. I know...it sounds stupid trying to explain it, but that's how I always feel it to be.
 
On the output signals, this is what I use religiously:
 
-3 dB mix out to be prepared for mastering. 
 
Final Master output for wave files with limiting = -0.1 dB
 
Final master out for mp3's = -0.3
 
Hope this helps.
 
-Danny 

sharke please accept my humble apologies for calling you shark. You know just one tiny little letter, yet it can mean so much. I know you you are not a shark at all but in fact a sharke. So I will never ever call you a shark again. I am really very very sorry. You know the good thing about this, is whenever I write the word sharke I am going to double check that little letter now just to make sure it is on there. 

We have got a bit of a shark problem here in Australia. They keep comin in a bit too close. They are starting to eat people but I know you would never do that because you are a nice sharke and not really a shark

He's more of a Jet, I think

Hi Dave,

If it turns out that the VCC is making the noise and you want to use it... then you can just deal with it.
You may simply need to put a level envelope on your "master" and make the noise go away where it seems obtrusive. 

It may just become part of your workflow.

best regards,
mike

Yep... Danny said the very thing that I do to eliminate noise. 

I use automation to go from infinity down to the level I want just milliseconds before the wave in the track starts. 

On some of the guitar tracks the amp hum is audible. However, using this method, the hum is enveloped out and once the music starts it is generally covered up by the other instruments. I do envelope it out in the song if there is a long section where the guitar is not playing but the hum would be an added factor in the noise floor. 

I also do post production editing with my wave editors and they allow me to trim the lead in noise that might not be caught in the project enveloping. 

There's no real excuse with digital recording to have a noise floor that is audible unless that is your goal. 

Thanks for the info guys.

I will experiment with it tonight and see what I come up with.

Thanks.

Jeff Evans


sharke please accept my humble apologies for calling you shark. You know just one tiny little letter, yet it can mean so much. I know you you are not a shark at all but in fact a sharke. So I will never ever call you a shark again. I am really very very sorry. You know the good thing about this, is whenever I write the word sharke I am going to double check that little letter now just to make sure it is on there. 

We have got a bit of a shark problem here in Australia. They keep comin in a bit too close. They are starting to eat people but I know you would never do that because you are a nice sharke and not really a shark

That's why I put the e! E's make everything softer and fluffier. 

Alright, I did some more testing.  

I found that when I disabled all instances of VCC in my project, it definitely did reduce the noise level.  so this is something to keep in mind on future projects.

I then created a new empty project containing 16 stereo audio tracks.

With nothing connected to the inputs of my Delta 44, I recorded (essentially silence) on all 16 tracks.  The level registering on each of the tracks was approximately -80db.

After recording and while playing back all 16 tracks simultaneously, the level at the Master Bus reads approximately -55.5db.

I wonder if someone else would be willing to do a similar test and report the results.  I'm wondering if my system is behaving properly.

Thanks.

Dave I did some tests all be it with Studio One. Firstly when you say you connected nothing to your interface and recorded nothing, the question I have first is where did you have your gain settings for your interface preamps. These will make a huge difference. If you have your gain cranked up then the noise level will be higher compared to being turned down low.

I use a Yamaha digital mixer as my interface. I am flawed how quiet my preamps are. I set up a stereo track and with all the gain I can muster ie up full blast with nothing connected I get noise that is -108 dB down on one stereo track. 

I then created 16 stereo tracks and recorded that same noise (-108 dB) on all of them and then played them all into the masterbuss. Total noise came up as expected but only to -87 dB. 

I used Span and also the Studio One Spectrum meter. The Studio One Spectrum meter has got about 8 modes but I picked the one that gave me the highest reading and it agreed with Span in case you were wondering.

Sounds like you have got something going on in your setup. -55 dB is not great and easy to hear and that is why you are hearing it. That is only somewhere between a decent cassette deck and a reel to reel machine.