Referring only to the last, unprocessed, example the level seems quite hot to me if you did not raise the level in post. Which makes me think you're trying to "use all the bits" in your tracking by going for a very high level. This makes your recording quite vulnerable to clipping, and digital clipping might be the source of your issue.
I experienced three breakthroughs in my recording - room treatment, tracking level reduction, and experience. My first few years of recording were spent trying to get tracking levels as high as possible and learning to use lower levels resulted in much more satisfactory results.
Fran
|