LEVELS IN PRO-TOOLS 5.1

[MR. BLISS]

My dat out is going into my patchbay
Patchbay then is going into Pro-Tools (analog)
(I hear back through the two track of my board)

On my dat the levels are perfect, the song is at a nice level, nowhere near 0db

but recording into PT, I notice it's hitting in the red ????????
is there something I can turn down in PT to not make it so HOT.

My work-a-round

I patched the DAT OUT into a COMPRESSOR, COMPRESSOR to PT (via patch) all is calm sounding as it
first intially sounded. But is there a reason to why my stuff PEAKED in the RED going into PT via analog ?

[Shawn Simpson]

What type of interface are you using? You obviously have a level difference between the calibration of your DAT outputs and the inputs of your Pro Tools interface. That might be because the DAT is outputting +4 and the interface is set for -10, or it could be that your DAT is calibrated to a higher operating level than your PT inputs. I'd suspect this is a +4 versus -10 situation though.

If you need help checking any of these settings, let us know what type of system you're using with as much detail as possible.

[MR. BLISS]

You do make perfect sense, now that I think about it the recording was at 48K on the DAT, and going into PT it excepts 44.1K ((dont know why I didnt catch that))

Probably just tired I guess, ummm I will also check what the output on the DAT +4 / -10

I think using +4 is the standard isnt it or is it -10 ( I think it's +4 if I'm not mistaken)


But thanks, the bit rate has to be the reason why (48K Dat recording)

[where02190]

Sample rate will not make any difference in level, and since you are going analog out of your dat it doesn't matter anyway. If your DAT has a digital SPDIF out I'd recommend using that instead of going analog, whcih adds another D-A and A-D conversion to the equation.

You don't tell us what PT interface youa re using, but if it is an 001, check the hardware setup for input sensitivity for inputs 3-8, and set accordingly to your dat output sensitivity. If it's an 002R, there are switches (on the back I believe) that select +4/-10 sensitivity.

There is no "standard" there are two different sensitivity ratings. Typically +4 is considered professional, -10 consumer, but many products are switchable.

I'm quite certain this is your problem.