How Hot?, What is the best input level to record? Options

[miaba]

Hi, everyone. I'm just trying to get a round-about idea of what the best recording level is in logic.
To put it another way: Should I be aiming for 0 to gt the hottest sound possible?

[musos]

The closer you get to 0, the more bits you use to describe the waveform, which is good for digital recording. Bear in mind that you have NO headroom as in analog - you get severe distortion when you go over.

[swilder]

Digital Distortion = Very very bad.

Recording at 24 bits will also give you more bits to "describe the waveform". You'll have to convert back to 16 bits to burn a cd that will play in a cd player. But the extra resolution you get while you're recording and mixing is worth it.

Scott

[rickenbacker]

It turns out that getting as close to 0dB as possible doesn't really have much effect on the quality of the waveform. What determines this is actually the bit and sample rates used to capture the signal - 24-bit is very good quality and 48KHz is a reasonable sample rate. 96 would be lovely, but this creates huge files (double the size, obviously) and places big demands on the host computer.

Many people who understand digital audio far better than me recommend pegging peak levels around -6dB, as this allows extra headroom for the mixing and mastering stages. If you record a signal around -6 and it's too quiet in the mix, you can always turn it up.

[beyaRecords]

From a final mastering point of view and I quot0e for page 12 of 'Matering: getting the most out of your mix":

Do try to mix to a "good level" to your two-track. Whether it's a DAT, MiniDisc, or CD-R you want a good signal to noise ratio. You do NOT want to "smash" it. Mixing so the bulk of the mix rides at -18 or -16dBfs is just fine. Leave some room for peaks (-6dBfs PEAKS are idea for a 24-bit mix), and leaves some room for the mastering engineer to work

The article can be found here:

http://www.massivemastering.com/

Beya

[musos]

The other school of thought believes that you can also pull a hot signal back when mixing. However, if you record something at -18dB and then boost it when mixing, you haven't used an optimum number of bits in the original, so the smoothness of the approximated curve appears more "steplike" when amplified.

Whatever works for you.....