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Old 05-25-2019, 08:42 PM   #27
brainwreck
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomm View Post
I dunno if this helps, but it's another way of looking at things... anyone disagree with it?

I disagree that any of this matters for the average person recording at home. Keep your recorded peaks well below 0 dBFS so that you aren't having to think about possibly going over. I have compared recorded tracks near 0 dBFS (for testing) and well below (including -18 dBFS), and I didn't hear any notable differences with my gear. I say to be practical about it. Think about where the track level will end up being in a mix. Try and record at that level.

And if your preamps are noisy at higher gain settings, obviously try and avoid that. But that can be a bit of foolery, because as you turn your preamps up, you are going to hear an overall louder signal including a louder noise level. But signal to noise is relative, no matter how loud you are hearing the incoming signal. So if you think it matters for your preamps, do some comparing by recording at lower and higher preamp gain settings and then matching the levels of the recorded tracks to have a listen. Maybe it is the case that any difference doesn't matter at all to you for your situation and gear.

Any way, I think that 'rules' tend to get people thinking the wrong way about things. What is practical? What problems do you hear, if any? How can you do direct comparisons? That should guide you, not 'rules'.
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Last edited by brainwreck; 05-25-2019 at 08:49 PM.
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