[JanVigne]

"Experimentation is great! I don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise. My only suggestion was to try to get more levels than he has. It's also reasonable to try to leave a little room so you don't accidently run over, and also to allow you to easily add a few db of EQ if needed.

But it's just a suggestion, if someone wants to try to nail 0db perfectly, then by all means, go for it. In my experience, -6db is a nice middle ground. It works well, it allows for the occaisonal louder-than expected note, I've had it requested by mastering engineers, etc. But in recording, there are no rules."




"I'm sure its been mentioned, but the reasoning is that with most recording rigs now being digital 24 bit systems, theres enough headroom and low enough noise floors to run slightly lower levels as they can be boosted after recording, whereas as soon as signal goes above 0dbfs, it will clip and cannot be recovered.

In practice, setting the gain so that you're right on the limit could mean that one sudden increase in volume while recording could end up ruining an otherwise good take."




If you mess up a home recording, what should you do with it? Throw it away, hit "delete all", take a hammer to the recorder, swallow the SD card! Something other than worry about whether you hit an unexpected blip. It happens. It's not the end of the world unless you forgot to hit "record" during your recent interview with Elvis. If you burn the cookies, what do you do? Give them to the neighbor kids and make another batch. Move on, learn from what you've done and make concessions which will prevent the same mistake.

So, the way I see it, the additional system noise of boosting the levels isn't bothersome to you guys? You're more worried someone will mess up a home recording of themself?

You'll never learn the limits and the qualities of your system unless you experiment. I don't advocate blowing things up but messing up one take is not the end of the world. If the system overloads when you set the levels "this" high, set the levels a bit lower and try again.

Meters are virtually never true indicators of what's going into the system anyway. Manufacturers build in tolerances which tend to safeguard the average joe who feels the meters should be in the red at all times. Running the meters up to flash red on the highest peaks - like those we are likely to find in the solo guitar performance we have here; no deep bass, no ultra high frequencies, moderate transients and a dynamic range of about 15dB - is very likely still inputting realistically at less than 0dB.


But you'll never know unless you experiment. It's just that simple. Learn your equipment. You say experimentation is great, then you provide rules which should not be broken. Tesla would be left scratching his head.


All this about the low noise floor on digital systems leads me to believe we have a philosophical divide between folks who believe bits is bits and all digital is perfect and someone - me - who disagrees with that reasoning. A few dB of EQ is still not going to harm most digital recordings of a solo guitar. Where does it exist? Not where the recorder is most likely to overload. Are you not planning on some EQ before you hit "record"? You should be if you've experimented with your system and you already have a sound in your head that you're trying to get out of your system. If you haven't planned for EQ, then you're still just experimenting, right? Why are you throwing up all these obstacles to just trying something? If you have learned your system and have an idea of the sound you want out of the system, then before you ever pluck a string, you probably know whether you're going to be adding "a few dB" of EQ. You guys all sound like you have strict rules for just how far from the soundhole the mic should be placed and, if you violate that rule, you've committed some horrible crime.


Experiment - but experiment with a destination in mind - is all I'm saying. If you're sticking microphones in places no one else sticks mics, then there's probably a reason why no one uses those locations. But go ahead and try them. You can always hit "delete" after you discover why no one uses those locations.



Arguments form authority aside, I have no recordings to post, rick. I got out of audio awhile back, haven't recorded anything in several years and don't have a clue how I would post a recording. Over the last few years I've been trying to divest myself from the piles of unused equipment sitting in my closets - anyone want a Revox reel to reel that hasn't run in a couple of decades? I'm now down to a Tascam DR-05 and a Zoom that won't synch to my computer. Even it has not seen much duty lately as I've become rather lazy about recording myself while I'm just noodling with a song. I might be able to find the SD card with my recording of the 12 piece tuba band but, even if I did, like I said, posting to the web is not something I want to bother with.

The idea is to learn your system and its abilities. That's all.