Quote:
Originally Posted by TBman
Good question, I forgot why I got into the habit of recording while wearing them. Maybe I did it at first to see what level I can raise the recording gain to before I heard "the room." I just got into the habit of wearing them. Good point Doug.
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I have used headphones to identify noise - crank the volume as loud as you can (and don't make any sudden noises!) and then walk around the room with a mic and listen. If you're like me, you'll find lots of little things that contribute to noise, light switches, wall warts, speakers, lights. They don't sound loud in person, and our brains tend to tune them out, but the mics hear them. So now you know what to turn off when you record. I've gone as far as to throw the breakers on every room in my house except the studio when recording - it's really funny, because I think the house is quiet, and then I turn off all the breakers, and everything goes down another notch. Kind of eerie.
But I'd suggest not letting the room noise determine how loud your record levels will be. Set your levels to what you need for the guitar. The noise is what it is, and will be the same relative level with your guitar no matter the gain you use (unless your preamp itself is noisy when turned up). If you turn the mics down to record, the room noise seems to be lower, but so is your guitar. Later, if you raise the level in your DAW, the guitar comes up and so does the recorded room noise, exactly the same as if you'd just set the gain to a good level to start with.