Vocal levels on Audio Interface and DAW

[GFunkEra408]

Hey everyone I'm recording an artist for the first time and I'm a bit confused on a few things here and maybe y'all can help a newbie out?


When I have my artist recording over a beat I'll notice that I have to turn up the audio interface gain to hear him better; however that makes the audio interface levels go red (clip) and as well as my daw levels. Also what is a good level to have these vocals at when recording (I.e. -13DB, -6DB)?


I want to make sure that my levels are consistent for each verse and chorus and that I get some headroom when mixing vocals. I'm noticing that my trial run the other day on the vocals we recorded are pretty weak prior to adding some compression to make the louder. Any advise is appreciated!


Thanks!

 

[rhythmgj]

Lots of tutorials on recording vox on-line; search posts here and also Google/YouTube. Best simple advice-- Track healthy levels without clipping, learn to use compression, and make sure you have a separate monitor feed/volume control so you can turn-up the vocal as needed for you and/or the recording artist while _not_ changing the input signal in regards to tracking!

setting-up a proper studio vocal monitoring chain - Recherche Google

GJ

 

[krushing]

You should be adjusting your monitoring levels separately from the gain. I guess the common rule of thumb for a healthy level (assuming you're recording @ 24bit) is somewhere between -18dbfs and -12dbfs.