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gain staging to fade or gain


jack c.

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The gain and level controls in any DAW do not control recording levels.  Your audio interface controls level. The faders are for mixing after you have tracks recorded. The gain controls are best left at unity unless the tracks were badly recorded and need help. The video covers this part very nicely 

Edited by John Vere
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13 hours ago, Steve Harder said:

I set faders to 0 and use gain knob to achieve the -db level I want.

This vid has lots of info 

 

thanks for info/video.this guy is outstanding.jack c.

7 hours ago, John Vere said:

The gain and level controls in any DAW do not control recording levels.  Your audio interface controls level. The faders are for mixing after you have tracks recorded. The gain controls are best left at unity unless the tracks were badly recorded and need help. 

i  take it all vst plugins don't have to be adjusted whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff have to be set at -10 db----18db as they are recorded into daw?

me audio interface is presonus  so are you saying whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff i adjust presonus to reach -10 db----18db as they are recorded into daw?thanks john.jack c.

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Yes absolutely. It’s too bad the video is about mixing not tracking. Basically you insert an audio track and you don’t need to touch it. Nothing you do changes the recording level or sound quality. That happens in your interface. 

Edited by John Vere
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46 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Yes absolutely. It’s too bad the video is about mixing not tracking.

My hope was directing OP to Creative Sauce would turn him on to a large set of tutorial videos.  Mike created an excellent  15 part series that starts with live recording and ends with mastering and distribution.  It's all there for study.

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4 hours ago, jack c. said:

thanks for info/video.this guy is outstanding.jack c.

i  take it all vst plugins don't have to be adjusted whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff have to be set at -10 db----18db as they are recorded into daw?

me audio interface is presonus  so are you saying whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff i adjust presonus to reach -10 db----18db as they are recorded into daw?thanks john.jack c.

It doesn't matter what you do with your Fx whilst recording - none of it will be captured in the track. CbB always records "dry" (unless you set up an Aux track and record from that)

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Yes everybody who uses Cakewalk even long time users can learn from that series. There are some things he misses but overall they are very educational and entertaining. 

like in that video he disables plug ins one at a time instead of just using the global bypass. 
 

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The gain knob and volume slider do the exact same thing at different places in the signal flow.

Which one to use depends on where one wants to adjust the level.

As noted above Cakewalk records the signal at its track inputs. Plug-ins added to a track come after the input.

Understanding the signal flow is important.

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5 hours ago, jack c. said:

 

i  take it all vst plugins don't have to be adjusted whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff have to be set at -10 db----18db as they are recorded into daw?

me audio interface is presonus  so are you saying whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff i adjust presonus to reach -10 db----18db as they are recorded into daw?thanks john.jack c.

i  take it all vst plugins i mean instruments not efx.

 

2 hours ago, John Vere said:

Yes absolutely. It’s too bad the video is about mixing not tracking. Basically you insert an audio track and you don’t need to touch it. Nothing you do changes the recording level or sound quality. That happens in your interface. 

whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff do i adjust presonus ?

 

1 hour ago, scook said:

The gain knob and volume slider do the exact same thing at different places in the signal flow.

Which one to use depends on where one want to adjust the level.

As noted above Cakewalk records the signal at its track inputs. Plug-ins added to a track come after the input.

Understanding the signal flow is important.

i have to adjust fader or gain knob or me audio interface for correct volume or else it will be in red.so which do i adjust of the 3 whilst recording?jack c.

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On 1/30/2021 at 6:56 PM, jack c. said:

i  take it all vst plugins i mean instruments not efx.

 

whilst recording.voice,real bass or guitar hardware stuff do i adjust presonus ?

 

i have to adjust fader or gain knob or me audio interface for correct volume or else it will be in red.so which do i adjust of the 3 whilst recording?jack c.

Interface only. Nothing else affects what is recorded

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On 1/29/2021 at 9:05 PM, jack c. said:

so for this would ya use the daws fader to move down so level for each track is -10 to record?or leave faders at unity gain and use gain knob to achieve this?thanks.jack c.

As others have said, you control the input gain when recording only by the physical controls on the preamp (and by looking at the meters).

That said, I never fade anything during recording, it's much easier to do it afterwards (and you can use both automate the fader or the gain knob, it makes no difference in that context).

Edited by Cristiano Sadun
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2 hours ago, Cristiano Sadun said:

As others have said, you control the input gain when recording only by the physical controls on the preamp (and by looking at the meters).

That said, I never fade anything during recording, it's much easier to do it afterwards (and you can use both automate the fader or the gain knob, it makes no difference in that context).

 

3 hours ago, Bristol_Jonesey said:

Interface only. Nothing else affects what is recorded

thanks for response.after tooooooooooo many moons i'm learning stuff i should have learned first.jack c.

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