How to gain stage your mic pre and interface

Iphone

Hello.sorry off topic, advise a good application for the iPhone plz
 
Morning_Star said:
Soon. It's going to be a video tutorial. I'm working on setting it up right now. But it's gonna take a minute to get the track recorded for the tutorial.
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Did this ever come out? This would be just what I need.

---------- Post added at 04:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:46 PM ----------
Morning_Star said:
It doesn't matter what the wave form looks like. You can actually adjust it so you can make it look like it's too loud. That's the slider at the top right of the screen.

Your just not understanding. You want to get the vocal mix right and after you compress then adjust the make-up gain and your vocals will be loud again. I guess I need to walk you through it.

Import the beat that has been "mastered". Lower that fader to -7db. Turn up your headphones as loud as you need it and record the vocals. If your vocals are too low to hear move your beat down to -10db and turn up the headphones more until you can hear the beat well and yourself in the mic well. Record all the vocals. Compress each vocal track with a 4:1 ratio, med/fast attack, med release, and adjust the threshold until you get between -3 to -5 db of gain reduction max. Pan and mix your vocal tracks. Then buss all your vocals to a stereo track. Then drop a compressor on your vocal buss and use a 2:1 ratio, med attack, med release, and adjust threshold until you can hear the compressor working then back it off until you can barely not hear it anymore. Then adjust the vocal buss fader until it fits perfectly with the beat. Then look at the master fader and read what the peak is. Then move both the beat and vocal buss up until you get about -3db peak on the master fader. Sometimes if the beat is way too squished I'll drop a master limiter on the vocal buss to make it match the beat. Only do this if you can't find the spot where the vocals sit in the beat. Like when it's too loud you turn it down but then it's too low so you have to turn it up. Ect. Now just drop a master limiter on the Master channel just to make sure you don't clip. Then after the limiter drop the TT Dynamic Range Meter. You can download it from Brainworx for free. That will tell you how loud your song really is, kinda. I like to keep my tracks in the yellow and green because I like range in my tracks but if it is in the red it is loud. Trust the meter.
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I am using REAPER, and it's master meter says that it is displayed in "vu." I am attempting to record vocal tracks to an industry instrumental. I have the instrumental as one track and turned the fader down a bit and have made a new track for my vocals. When the new track is armed for recording do I put "input effects on?" I put noise gate, compression, and reverb on the "input effects." When I monitor myself I don't usually go above -10db (-18 db without the comrpessors gain) and if I do it's compressed at a 2:1 ratio with a fast attack speed and medium release. When I record my vocals it is recorded with those effects though. Would you recommend recording my vocal's dry while having them monitored to myself with these effects in an attempt to get a better performance? Or should I keep these effects on the input of the track while i'm recording?
 
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Hey, can anybody tell me what's wrong - everytime I install this PSP Vintage VST it ends up in my VST folder as a UNIX file and Ableton can't read it. I am on Mac OSX 10.8.2
 
Dang! I have to check into this, good looking out!

Morning_Star said:
Some interfaces are made to handle this. Some are not. A mic pre is used to boost a mic signal to line level. Then once it's line level is ready for recording. So you don't want to boost a line level signal with a mic pre. If this is the only option for your interface then you need to have the mic pre at nominal meaning there is no signal boosting going on from the mic pre. Usually with the gain knob turned all the way down. But you should go from the line out of your mic pre to the line in on your interface to avoid any problems.
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Morning_Star said:
This is a quick run down of setting up your mic and mic pre to properly work with your interface to get the highest quality and best recording. I'm posting this because I see so many problems with this.
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Morning_Star said:
If you are using Sonar, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper or FL Studio to record vocals first go here and download PSP vintage meter. There is even a AU version for mac.

PSP VintageMeter free metering plug-in VST, MAS, RTAS and DirectX compatible!

If you are using ProTools then you can use the stock BF Meter Bridge.

Now load up your recording software and create a new audio track to record to. Make sure the gain on your mic pre is turned all the way down. (Remember that if you are using an external mic pre that the output needs to go to line in of the audio interface and not the mic input.)

Next make sure that the fader for your channel for recording vocals is at 0db. Now load the PSP Vintage Meter in the first slot. (BF Meter Bridge if using ProTools). Now click on the PSP logo on the plug-in to view the back. Make sure you change the 0vu refer level to -18dbFS. Now click the label to view the front again and make sure that the meter is on VU with the switch in the middle.

(for protools make sure the meter is set with the -18db button pressed in and the switch on peak)

Now while doing a mic check raise the gain knob of the mic pre until the PSP vintage meter reads close to 0db but never over. (BF Meter Bridge for ProTools) Leave it there for your vocal recording. If you change vocalist adjust the gain on the mic pre until you get the same signal in the meter. Enjoy clean vocals. If using a compressor make sure it's bypassed for this tutorial.
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Hey, can anybody tell me what's wrong - everytime I install this PSP Vintage VST it ends up in my VST folder as a UNIX file and Ableton can't read it. I am on Mac OSX 10.8.2. There is NO .vst file when I install this.. Just a PSP Catalog and a PSP Vintage Meter UNIX file inside. I will really appreaciate any help!
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XLR is still a balanced connection. It will be fine as long as you do NOT turn on 48 volt phantom power
 
MnM said:
can you please explain this part "Remember that if you are using an external mic pre that the output needs to go to line in of the audio interface and not the mic input."

my problem right now is that the vu meter is not responding to my mic check as i am turning up the knob of the interface (presonus firestudio mobile). anything I am doing wrong?( im using cubase and I put the vintage meter in the first slot as an insert.)

thanks and cheers!
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I have a quick question. Is it ok to adjust the gain on both the preamp and audio interface.

I have the following vocal chain:

AKG Perception 420 microphone
ART Pro ll Preamp
Dbx 166xl compressor
Presonus Firestudio mobile interface

---------- Post added 02-01-2013 at 12:00 AM ---------- Previous post was 01-31-2013 at 09:27 AM ----------
Morning_Star said:
This is a quick run down of setting up your mic and mic pre to properly work with your interface to get the highest quality and best recording. I'm posting this because I see so many problems with this.

If you are using Sonar, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper or FL Studio to record vocals first go here and download PSP vintage meter. There is even a AU version for mac.

PSP VintageMeter free metering plug-in VST, MAS, RTAS and DirectX compatible!

If you are using ProTools then you can use the stock BF Meter Bridge.

Now load up your recording software and create a new audio track to record to. Make sure the gain on your mic pre is turned all the way down. (Remember that if you are using an external mic pre that the output needs to go to line in of the audio interface and not the mic input.)

Next make sure that the fader for your channel for recording vocals is at 0db. Now load the PSP Vintage Meter in the first slot. (BF Meter Bridge if using ProTools). Now click on the PSP logo on the plug-in to view the back. Make sure you change the 0vu refer level to -18dbFS. Now click the label to view the front again and make sure that the meter is on VU with the switch in the middle.

(for protools make sure the meter is set with the -18db button pressed in and the switch on peak)

Now while doing a mic check raise the gain knob of the mic pre until the PSP vintage meter reads close to 0db but never over. (BF Meter Bridge for ProTools) Leave it there for your vocal recording. If you change vocalist adjust the gain on the mic pre until you get the same signal in the meter. Enjoy clean vocals. If using a compressor make sure it's bypassed for this tutorial.
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Do you adjust the gain on both the preamp and audio interface?

Check out my vocal chain:

AKG Perception 420 microphone
ART Pro ll Preamp
dbx 166XL compressor
PreSonus FireStudio Mobile interface

---------- Post added at 12:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:00 AM ----------

I figured it out just adjust the gain on preamp.

Proper Gain Staging
Now that you have your preamp hooked up to your interface, the last thing we need to look at is your gain staging and signal flow. The gain knob on your interface controls the preamp on that interface. Since we are using an external preamp to bring the microphone signal up to line level we don’t need the gain on the interface.
If you have a line input with no gain knob associated with it, use that one. If not, follow this advice. Start by turning the interface gain knob all the way down. Then use the input (and sometimes output) knob(s) on your external mic pre to get the desired audio level into your DAW. If you need more gain into your software, adjust it on the preamp, not the interface as this would mean your signal is being boosted twice by two different preamps.
Remember, you don’t need really hot levels going into your DAW and you definitely don’t want unneeded noise. Avoid all of this by using conservative gain staging in your external preamp, and avoiding the extra gain from your interface’s pre when running a line in from an external.

How To Hook Up An External Preamp [Reader Question] » The Recording Revolution
 
Gain staging is the process of setting the proper audio level for each device within the signal flow. What you want to do is inspect the interface LED to make sure that it's not in the red, if it is in the red, bring down the level until its at a comfortable level. Make sure the microphone isn't to close to the instrument because that could cause the proximity effect to occur. If there's more low frequency in the signal, move the microphone back a bit to even out the sound.
 
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Could you all help me? Look in this forum for my post titled "Question About Recording Over a Mastered Beat."
I got a question about my mic-pre & such.
 
Your saying that you want to go from your mic in on the cl 7602 out of the output with a xlr cable that turns into a line in, like a guitar cable? O.O i didnt know they sold those., but now after looking it up online i see this, Im going from a Cl 7602 mkii into a scarlett 2ii which has Two mono inputs, therefore i need to find a xlr to 2 line inputs OR a xlr to line in, and then some sort of line in splitter?? im so confused bleh.
 
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Originally Posted by Morning_Star
go here and download PSP vintage meter. There is even a AU version for mac.
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There is no AU plugin, can you give a more precise link?
 
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