Secrets of Music Mixing and Home Music Productions
You require to ensure that every of the songs you record will be playing back at the proper volume for the listener. To start with, set your monitor level. The best way to do this is to first hear a song you’re genuinely familiar with. Be sure it is a zero peaking song. Have it at the level its suppose to be at. An enjoyable listening level. Once you are at this stage, do not change the monitor levels but instead adjust the master track of the song you are working on. It should sound at the exact level for listening. Then check the meter levels to make sure theyre not on over load. If it’s on over load then consider placing a limit rather than turning the level down. Make a note of the level setting thats on the monitor. You’ll have this in future to relate to.
Try to remember that it’s not how high you get the volume to, but the quality of the volume that would make the recording a success. Ideally, it will be to show the level of the instrument that it’s meant to go to not beyond its means. Technology is a marvellous tool but it does not win common sense and instinct.
Remember that you do not need to record at the max volume. Various people will argue then why is it necessary to have a sixteen bit dynamic range it you are not going to utilise it. A come back to that remark would be why bother trying to record the cabasa at exactly sixteen bits when it is never going to represent more than twelve bits anyways.
Some other issues of not wanting to have the sound cranked up to max is in the event youve to use a favourite. These are not exactly user friendly when having to be utilised at low level. However if you record at logical and practical levels you can avoid unnecessary time consuming concerns such as these.
You can end up with a couple of large mixing problems if you are utilising an analogue mixing desk long with something like hi-hat recorded at max, on digital multitrack. If various of the items are always peaking at zero then when turned off, you would still hear them in the backdrop. This is in reference to items like hi-hats, cabasas or cymbals for instance
In this case, you shouldn’t be surprised to find every of that electrical leakage being reverb on the hi hat, as just one cause. Items like bass drum and snare drum are meant to be played loudly but not the top kit items or the quiet instruments.
The bottom line is to bear in mind to find the reasonable levels. From there you have some leverage to work with, either up or down as the situation or sound or instrument dictates. In the very end, you’re going to end up with a superior piece of recording. After all music is every thing about sound.