Volume limit? Help

[Marcello]

Hi Im pretty new to cakewalk, when I record a guitar or whatever instrument there is a volume bar on the right side of the track. I can see that after recording in several point of the track the volume bar reaches the yellow and red top, like if it’s at its limit. I suppose it should not reach that level right? So should I lower the volume?

What is the best practise in terms of keeping the right volume? I notice that sometimes when it’s to high there is some scratchy noise.

consider I recorder the guitar with my external sound device where the output was set up at maximum, the gain at half. 

[mark skinner]

You should have your input volume set to a decent level "before" you actually Record the track. Just watch your meter while playing the part. The song doesn't even have to be playing to set your level.  If it's going too high (yellow) turn down the input gain on your interface or guitar. Red is always bad. Try not to get louder than -6 to -12 to start with. You can turn it up later if you need to. Once you're in the red and making noises you're screwed and should redo the track. There are fixes but it will cost you. The more tracks you add , the louder your song gets , so start in the middle, not too quiet , not too loud.  Good luck..  mark

[Marcello]

Thank you! Input/gain level in the external audio device was set up at half, I set it there so that the red light there wouldn’t flash. But in any case maybe the output level from the guitar th3 plugin was too hig, I guess I will just turn it down from there or the volume of the track itself, now its over zero so I huess I can low it down at -3 or -6 until the volume level sont reach red

[Marcello]

One more thing, even if I low down the single tracks not to reach the red in the volume bar, in the busses And the master volume it actually reaches the red. So should I also low down the buses volume and the master? If I do so the volume is very low though

[Nigel Mackay]

In the track view, above all the tracks, select Options -> Meter Options and select Horizontal meters. Widen that column. You get meters that are more useful.

When recording the guitar keep it below the red. Record a little riff.

On all tracks, set the fader to the "0" position. Then loop play that riff, and adjust the level control on the amp you are using in TH3 to keep that track below red.

Then go to the bus that is fed from the track  with the TH3 and adjust its Input Gain to keep the level below the red. Then go to the master and adjust its Input Gain to keep it below the red. Now set the volume of your listening system to get a good volume.

Now you can record.

[Marcello]

Ok thanks!! The gain wont affect the sound if I decrease it? Is not intended as a distortion gain right? I don’t want my guitars to lose dist

[Nigel Mackay]

Input Gain is the knob at the top of each track. That ONLY sets level. It only affects the sound if you turn it up too high and get clipping. ?

Inside TH3 you adjust all the knobs on the amp to get the sound you want all the way to Gain or Volume (depends on the actual amp.) The last knob, level, has nothing to do with the amp sound, and is not on real amplifiers. That is just there to bring the level back down again, because amplifiers are famous for making things louder.

At all stages along the chain, you turn the output level down or up so that it is the same as the level at the input. That way you keep the level of everything constant up until the final mix. (With something like a compressor, it is very often labelled Makeup Gain, because a compressor brings the LEVEL down while increasing the VOLUME.)

Once you have recorded your guitar track, with no clipping and with the amp sounding the way you want, go to the Tutorials section and  watch some YouTube videos. Most of them are excellent. Use the search words "beginners" or "start." Also have a look at the Creative Sauce one about Gain Staging. There you will see what I mean about maintaining a constant level throughout the entire chain.

 

 

[Sleetah2000]

Nigel,

I'm finding your explanations on gain staging to be very helpful.  I'm also starting to see why some of my older mixes have worked and others are just muddy messes, even as I was following what I thought were best practices.  To top it off, you introduced me to the Creative Sauce tutorial series.  Thanks or accelerating the learning curve.