Tracking Levels and Playback Levels

[paul_g]

I noticed that the tracking level is much lower than the playback level.
Example, I tracked a b3 player + b3 solo. Sounded great, but when I played it back, it was clipping and much louder on the playback from when we tracked.

I notice when I track something I have to turn up the fader, and on playback turn it down...

This issue inevitably led to me having 5 different takes of very good solos almost unusable because of clipping....

Now, is there a plug, (I'm trying some compression), that will assist in reducing the clipping?

[GTBannah]

Unfortunately, I don't PT does not allow us to monitor the input level via the software. We have to do that via some hardware option.

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding.

[GTBannah]

Unfortunately, I don't PT does not allow us to monitor the input level via the software. We have to do that via some hardware option.

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding of the situation.

[paul_g]

Originally Posted by GTBannah

Unfortunately, I don't PT does not allow us to monitor the input level via the software. We have to do that via some hardware option.

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding of the situation.

Que???

Not sure of your answer GT. I'm just talking tracking in general.
When I record I hear the thing I'm tracking in the cans or monitors - sounds fine.... then on playback it's way louder. Resulting in me having to grab the fader and drag it down.

I'm fearing that I'm not getting a 1:1 db ratio when tracking vs. playback, which in my case lead to something I thought was good, but turned out to be digitally clipping on the playback.

[GTBannah]

Originally Posted by paul_g

Que???

Not sure of your answer GT. I'm just talking tracking in general.
When I record I hear the thing I'm tracking in the cans or monitors - sounds fine.... then on playback it's way louder. Resulting in me having to grab the fader and drag it down.

I'm fearing that I'm not getting a 1:1 db ratio when tracking vs. playback, which in my case lead to something I thought was good, but turned out to be digitally clipping on the playback.

Lemme go out on the proverbial limb here ....

My understanding is, that there is no input monitoring in PT. What we hear in the cans, sounding good, is probable very hot going into PT, so when we hear the playback, it's distorted. If we had input monitoring, we would have been able to see how got the recording levels were and make the adjustment.

Again, I could be wrong about PT's not having input monitoring.

[albee1952]

Interesting. What I hear on recording is exactly what I hear on playback. Have you made record and playback disconnected from each other somehow? Are you using Pre-fader or Post-fader metering?(should always use PRE for recording).

[anothercolour]

In the Preferences pages you can choose to Link Record and Play Faders. Maybe you have that deselected.

[The Dougfather]

Now, is there a plug, (I'm trying some compression), that will assist in reducing the clipping?

Clipping occurs at the AD stage so once it's clipped the audio is damaged so to speak, in analogue you could get away with it, in digital it's nasty stuff. You would need a hardware compressor before the AD stage to truly reduce peaks on the way in. If you apply a compressor after audio has been peaked during tracking the meter might not clip but the audio has already clipped, so it's false economy.

Your using a 003 right? Do you have low latency monitoring enabled? If so LLM disables plugins and sends on record enabled tracks. Is it possible the quietness during tracking is the plugins bypassed and the loudness them being re-enabled at playback, taking a stab here.

[albee1952]

One thing I have to ask; how hot are you recording(where are the meters while recording)? it you are shooting for as hot as possible, that's not a good idea. It worked well in the old analog days(to get above the noise floor) but now we have almost no noise, so record at 24 bit(whenever possible) and get the meters just into the yellow(plenty of headroom this way). Old habits die hard(since I started on a 16 track 2" machine, I know them well)

[paul_g]

Originally Posted by albee1952

One thing I have to ask; how hot are you recording(where are the meters while recording)? it you are shooting for as hot as possible, that's not a good idea. It worked well in the old analog days(to get above the noise floor) but now we have almost no noise, so record at 24 bit(whenever possible) and get the meters just into the yellow(plenty of headroom this way). Old habits die hard(since I started on a 16 track 2" machine, I know them well)

I shoot for nothing higher than -6db... Since I record at 24 bit, I have a lot of head room to play with. I'd rather track really low and then mix high. Yes, going form analog (giving my age away) to digital was a switch at first, but I know now I never go higher than -6db (that's my ceiling).

I'm afraid the b3 player cranked his volume during a solo and I wasn't looking at the levels... So I've limited (with look ahead), and some creative eq - plus more compression and I think I'm ok. It was bad, luckily not that bad, but in this case bad enough, but non the less, I think it's buried in the mix.

A mistake I will NEVER make again... (taking my eyes off the meters during a solo section).