Daniel Vernall

Thanks for all your responses! I read the article @StudioNSFW, it had good info in. Although the guy seemed to be pretty old school (not a bad thing) and much of the article seemed to be directed at guys coming over from analog to digital and getting confused with the transition. I can safely say I have no analog experience! 😂. So I learned the reasons why digital meters having input set at -12dB to -24dB is quite normal and desired, whereas on an analog meter it could be at 0dB and still would have a 20dB or so buffer above that before clipping. I'm getting used to the idea that I can add gain/volume easily. This seems counter intuitive to me, considering looking at things like video, where you need to record big then scale down in order to maintain the level of detail. A lay person might think that recording loud is better as "you can always turn it down", whereas recording low would require artificial boosting. But you have all given me confidence that the levels I'm working with are fine and there is a difference between the recording input stage, the mixing and mastering stages and the desired levels at each phase are not the same.

Thanks all,

Dan

Ah yes, that makes sense. The levels are matching what I put in. But the levels are quieter than expected. They tend to hover on average around the -12 mark. The wave form seems quite small in the track aswell. I notice it goes to -3dB, should I be aiming for the track to be around -6dB on average? It seems if it was desirable to be at -12dB why would track be designed to show so much space for -12dB to -3dB. 

I'm brand new to recording and using a DAW. I have an Audient ID 14 and I'm recording an acoustic guitar track using the DI (It is an electro-acoustic, I'm not plugging a mic into the DI channel.) I've read some entry tutorials and watched some videos. I set the input level on the interface so the loudest chords max between -6dB and -12dB on the interface software (and hardware meter). This has the gain knob at 4 and the channel level at 0.

When I add the input device on cakewalk, the input level seems to agree with the interface software (or maybe puts the level slightly higher in cakewalk). But when I record the track, the output level is alot lower. It seems to sit around -54dB. I have the gain set at 0 and volume at 0.

What should I be doing to bring this level up to listening levels without clipping?