Gain and Level Meters

specialpop · Post by **specialpop** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:50 pm

still learning... forgive the basic question!
should i be adjusting the gain (for maximum gain) in the sample box when setting warp markers etc. and save the gain settings in the asd. file, in order to try to keep all my clips at the same level?

and then... can anyone help me understand what to look for in the live level meter? obviously when the whole thing goes red i need to lower my levels... optimally.. should i stay completely in the green or am i supposed to just be getting a speck of red, or..?
i appreciate any help!

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 3:25 pm

1: I find it useful to "normalize" the files this way sometimes - that way I won't need to change my fader gain after loading.

2: No reds. red=dead in the digital world (except in certain cases where you want digital clipping, of course)
On an analogue board you sometimes want to push into the reds, though - but not on a digital system.

specialpop · Post by **specialpop** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:33 pm

thanks for the help.
i am finding that i need to lower my gain quite a bit on most of my tracks. (to be absolutely clear... i need to keep the peaks below the line at the top of the meter, right?) all my music is ripped from vinyl into peak. and then straight into live. so i hope i'm not screwing everything up!?

anyways, my last question to you is... when i am playing two or more clips together the master goes red (unless i really lower the clips gain a lot)... i have added a compressor ii set to limiting which stops that... is this what i should be doing? otherwise i have to lower my gains up to -5.00 db!??

deckme(N)tal · Post by **deckme(N)tal** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:42 pm

i think you should use a limiter on the master out that stops everything going over 0.0 db..i use the waves L2, but there are a lot of good freeware...
i would not use a compressor as it can react differently from track to track and kill them...

mercyplease · Post by **mercyplease** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:14 pm

specialpop wrote:thanks for the help.
i am finding that i need to lower my gain quite a bit on most of my tracks. (to be absolutely clear... i need to keep the peaks below the line at the top of the meter, right?) all my music is ripped from vinyl into peak. and then straight into live. so i hope i'm not screwing everything up!?

anyways, my last question to you is... when i am playing two or more clips together the master goes red (unless i really lower the clips gain a lot)... i have added a compressor ii set to limiting which stops that... is this what i should be doing? otherwise i have to lower my gains up to -5.00 db!??

From reading what you say normaliing your audio could give you more gain problems and would mean you have to reduce the levels more than you already do. I would reduce gain levels settings which are on the clip properties.

Hepha Luemp · Post by **Hepha Luemp** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:16 pm

Why normalize the audio?
I can't see any point in it - really... - it's not like it's getting better or something...

Limiter:
For a very good and yes - free - limiter, try the kjerhus classic series:
http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php