Home Recording

[DanDaMan315]

When I record (I'm using Audacity) the music levels at zero, however when I compare the volume to the music industry's music it doesn't even compare with how loud it is.

Let me sum that up:
My music at zero = too low volume compared to major label music

If I level it any higher I get clipping. Does the music industry clip almost every song it puts out? I don't want clipping so I'm keep the levels where they are. I'm just not sure I need a more expensive program to make it level right. Zero should be zero, I don't understand it, please help me.

 

[Dubb]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_level_compression

 

[Red Squirrel]

The original recording needs to be as loud as possible, but not full blast. Ex: say you have a sound board make sure your mics and all are mixing at the loudest but do not clip when outputting the the recorder (ex: pc) At the record source set the recording volume so it slightly goes in the red (near clipping but not clipping).
At the end you can always bring it in soundforge and run a normalize as well.

More avid sound experts may have better advice.

 

[Rubycon]

You want to record a few dB down from 0 to avoid distortion. (peak) normalizing to 0 dB is fine. RMS normalizing is NOT! That is how they get it so loud. It KILLS the dynamic range. Broadcasters use the latter type of normalization to BLAST you when a commercial comes on. Horrible for music!

Your recordings should NOT sound loud and nowhere near to what the music industry is pumping out these days. If you want it loud crank it up! When the drums hit at 0 dB it will sound MUCH better than hearing everything loud. This is what they call the loudness war and needs to end last week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

 

[biggestmuff]

Don't try and repeat what the music industry is doing. All consumer, music reproduction equipment has a volume knob. Let the listener use it.

 

[AlienCraft]

Ahhh "level", the eternal quandry. What is "level"? Is it really "level"? How do we know this "level" is the same or different than that "level"?
This is not just a simply answered question, with the exception to say that there are several methodologies and lexicon for speaking about "level".
There is Signal Level in an electrical sense, then there is "level" in an acoustic , physical sense. Electrical level has different methods of measuring and they are mangled regularly, and I'm likely to screw it up at this stage in the game as well.

Your recording sounds less loud than commercially produced CD's because the Commercially produced CDs are MASTERED to "optimize" the discrepancies between songs.
Mastering

No matter what the advertising says, A computer is not "all you need" to make a professional sounding recording.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

Record regular and normalize your ish

 

[gorcorps]

Thinking you can match millions of dollars worth of equipment with your little home set up is ridiculous. If some yokel in his basement could match studio levels and sound there wouldn't be any need to pay producers.

 

[Kirby]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
Thinking you can match millions of dollars worth of equipment with your little home set up is ridiculous. If some yokel in his basement could match studio levels and sound there wouldn't be any need to pay producers.

Plug for fellow ATOTer.

 

[Saint Nick]

You do not need millions of dollars of equipment to make a great recording. If you know how to use the equipment well enough, then you should be able to acheieve almost any sound possible.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: NightDarker
You do not need millions of dollars of equipment to make a great recording. If you know how to use the equipment well enough, then you should be able to acheieve almost any sound possible.

But a certain amount of equipment and software knowledge IS needed. There was a huge difference going from my directly line-in from my guitar amp to a line 6 toneport designed for recording. You don't need millions of dollars but you need something decent.

 

[DanDaMan315]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
The original recording needs to be as loud as possible, but not full blast. Ex: say you have a sound board make sure your mics and all are mixing at the loudest but do not clip when outputting the the recorder (ex: pc) At the record source set the recording volume so it slightly goes in the red (near clipping but not clipping).
At the end you can always bring it in soundforge and run a normalize as well.

More avid sound experts may have better advice.

If the levels are at all in the red the music sounds clipped.

I'm just wondering how the music industry clips their music but yet it ends up sounding really good and not clipped.

The reason I want the volume as high as the industry's is because adjusting your volume from one song to the next is annoying. I do know however that a lot of music from the 70's has a lot lower volume.

 

[rbV5]

Just don't record too hot for starters. You'll want to record with you levels below peak so that you have some headroom when you Master.

I'm certainly no pro, but you absolutely don't want clipping when you record your track, you'll want your levels below clipping enough that you can raise it later without losing your dynamics. If its recorded too hot, too close to clipping, you can only turn it down in the mix without distorting...this is bad.

When you master your mix, you'll probably be using a limiter to prevent clipping while raising the levels to make your tracks as loud as possible without overly compressing the signal.