Well, here it is. Me and another forum user, just so happen to have similar set ups (Firepod Input with Ableton Live 5). He asked me some questions about some matters. I realized, that the advice I was giving him, from my screwups, might be pertenant to all of us users here, so without further ado, here is what I have learned the hard way.
Oh, one last thing, even though I speak of firepod here, you can substitute the name of whatever audio interface that you use, inplace of the word firepod. Please, don't think this advice is only for it.
1. make sure to get the best sounding tracks you can. If they don't sound good raw, with no effects, they will be very hard to work with.
2. Make sure and set the input gain with your knobs on the firepod. I leave all my Ableton settings at their preset of 0. I do all the initial adjusting and tweaking to the volume levels that I can with the front of the Firepod. Leave the knobs alone after you get them set. Try and get the best mix with the knobs that you can. That way, all the volumes of all the different songs can be exactly the same. Set the loudest channel by turning your knobs until they clip. Then back them off until they stop clipping, just barely. Make sure, that whomever you are recording, has their volume up the loudest it will ever be. I mean, really loud. Now, with it setup like that, you know they will never clip the track. Clipping, in any sort, will mess up your final product, with little glitches or pops. Its bad. Once I got into mixing and editing the songs and tracks, I can make minor volume adjustments and tweaks with the ableton controls, but the raw tracks to all the songs will be at the same levels.
3. Along with all that stuff about leaving the volumes all the same. This is the best advice I can give, and I know from the experience of having to rerecord all 6 songs of this band I am recording. Set up the drums and mics, when you record them, in a place where you can leave them set up. Mine are actually set up in my recording room, with the mics set up 24/7 all the time. Here is why. If you remove your mics between sessions, your will never get the same exact mic placement. This will not only result in different volume levels, but will also result in different tonal characteristics. We recorded 2 songs on day 1 and 4 more on day 2. The first 2 drums sound nothing like the last 4. The bass drum sounds nothing like the others. I can't find a way to get it even close. It was so bad, that we decided to rerecord all of the tracks, which I am working on now.
4. Lastly, write down everything you can and take good notes. That way, if a knob does get turned, you know where it was. I am trying to actually keep a log of everything I do on each song. That way, if I make a song, and adjust effects and such, and get it sounding good. I know what the settings are. Now I adjust for whatever reason and we get it sounding better. And I keep doing adjustments until it sounds like crap. But, i'm not sure what all I have adjusted. The band decides, after all, they like the first recording better. Well, I have it saved, but unless I write it down, i'm not sure what I did. Now, they decide, once again, they want some adjustments. Even if I saved every song after adjustment the first time, I still have no idea what adjustments I made, just what it sounds like. If I make sure and write down the adjustments when I save something, I can now see which ones I have already tried so I don't just redo all the experimenting I already did. I am trying to get in this habit, but am not fully there. It has bit me in the butt a few times. I have about 30 rendered tracks of one of my bands own songs. I have no idea what adjustments I made on any of them.
Maybe this will help someone out. I hope so. Please feel free to punch all the holes in the world in my theory here.
Shawn