CraigDavson Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 Hi guys, so I am going to ask a question regarding level volumes on recordings again. Sorry if this has been posted and answered before. I am about to go and do some recordings with my M20. I would really like some simple no tech advice on what was going wrong the last time I tried this. I recorded onto a good quality SD card tracks and vocals. Played it back on the desk and the mix is great. Put it onto my laptop and the levels of the vocals are hugely less than the music. The music is backing tracks recorded through line 13/14 stereo. I have the volumes of the vocals up to good strong levels. The music is poss have the strength. The main mix out is nice and strong recording for performance levels. I really don't want to have to sit there and increase the Db of my vocals when mixing them with my music just to get the levels equal. I would have thought that whatever I heard from my main mix and from the play back mix of the desk is what I would get once I loaded them on to my laptop. What would be really great is an actual vid tutorial of recording a live mix and not just the recording tutorial that is on the site. As that one is simply backing tracks being recorded and played back on the desk. Something that walks you through how to set the desk up to get a good result that sounds the same as the play back recording you listen to before loading it into your laptop or P.C. I can't think of what else I can do if I have the levels all up at good volumes and what is causing the huge difference between levels of vocals and levels of track. Cheers for any nice simple advice guys. I am not a sound tech... I know my way around my desk but all the tech talk would be wasted on me :-) Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 I'm not sure at exactly what point in the signal chain the Recording takes place, but it might be just following the Trim setting. Check the Trim setting on your mics to make sure a strong signal level is being received at the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dboomer Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 The levels on the recording do not necessarily match your mix. The recordings are right after the trim gain and the A/D converters. Your mix is after your level control. So it's not the same thing. So basically the way to approach this is to plug in your mics, the set the auto trim. At this point you will clearly capture your performance. After you finish you then dump the unmixed tracks back into a DAW to mix down. You will need to create a mix of the recorded tracks at this point. If your tracks seem a little low after you dump them to your DAW just normalize them in the DAW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassman24 Posted July 26, 2013 Share Posted July 26, 2013 I have discovered that if you turn up the master volume level of the M20d to 0 DB and on the other hand maybe turn down the volume of the speakers a little bit (depending on what speakers you have) for your front mix you´ll get a pretty good level for recording on your tracks. Did that last time and the volume of the tracks is quite OK, for single track and main mix recording. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigDavson Posted July 27, 2013 Author Share Posted July 27, 2013 Thanks guys, I will have a play with the trim settings as they may have been where I fell down last time. Now for a really stupid question dBoomer... by DAW do you mean my Goldwave music programme on my laptop. In which case yep I will take the folders and combine my tracks for final mix. That is where I had the problem last time of finding the inconsistant levels with tracks and vocals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealZap Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 DAW=digital audio workstation. goldwave sounds like it's probably a DAW, just not a common or familiar one to me. Thanks guys, I will have a play with the trim settings as they may have been where I fell down last time. Now for a really stupid question dBoomer... by DAW do you mean my Goldwave music programme on my laptop. In which case yep I will take the folders and combine my tracks for final mix. That is where I had the problem last time of finding the inconsistant levels with tracks and vocals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigDavson Posted July 27, 2013 Author Share Posted July 27, 2013 DAW=digital audio workstation. goldwave sounds like it's probably a DAW, just not a common or familiar one to me. Thanks RealZap. Yep that is my programme. Would be interested to hear of any others out there that are good a have a nice easy work interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRealZap Posted July 27, 2013 Share Posted July 27, 2013 easy is all in what you're used to... i find things like cubase and power tools crazy complicated... i personally would recommend mixcraft or garageband for my version of easy... but it's a very subjective topic... many have demos that you can try to decide for yourself. Thanks RealZap. Yep that is my programme. Would be interested to hear of any others out there that are good a have a nice easy work interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.