Or maybe the question is, how loud should you record? Both are very important questions.
Back in the "analog days" we were told to record at volume levels just below clipping. This way we hit the "sweet spot" of the console and the tape, and also rise higher above the noise floor.
Today's case is a bit different. If you're recording in your home studio straight into your audio interface, there's no need to record as loud as possible.
You should aim for a "healthy" signal level, not a loud one
What does that mean? Take a look at these 3 recordings:
While the top one might look the most exciting, and the middle one not so much, the bottom one is the one you should aim for. Let's take a closer look:
The middle line is complete silence, and the top line is clipping (0dbfs). The waveform isn't even close to clipping, in fact, it doesn't go more than 70% of the way. But it is still a good signal level that we won't have a hard time hearing.
Why is this the optimal volume level for recording?
When we drive our preamp's gain to get a loud (or a "hot") signal, we might push it too hard, to the point where it introduces unnecessary noise into our recordings, and actually hurt them.
Our modern audio interfaces have very clean preamps. They DON'T produce a nice distortion that can enhance the sound of our signal, like many classic preamps and consoles do.
Old tapes machines had a very high noise floor, meaning that you had to get a loud signal in order to rise above the hiss. Modern preamps (like the ones you have in your audio interface) have a very low noise floor, and don't need to be pushed hard to get a noise-free signal. In fact, like I said earlier, pushing them too hard might introduce more noise to the signal.
Does it affect the mixing stage too?
Yes, it does. When moving on to the mixing stage, a lot of plugins (especially analog emulating plugins) will have a hard time handling a loud signal, making your work harder and more frustrating.
Let's take 2 types of plugins as an example, a compressor, and a tape emulation plugin.
If you feed a compressor with a very loud signal, it might pass the threshold even on its highest setting, resulting in a constant gain reduction without even intending to do so. Running a loud signal through a tape emulation plugin, can result in too much distortion (or a bad sounding distortion) even with the gain knob turned all the way down.
On the other hand, running a very quiet signal through a compressor plugin might force you to pull the threshold fader way down, where the resolution of the fader is too low, and every subtle move will translate to a big change in sound. This might give you a hard time setting the threshold to the right level. Feeding a tape emulation plugin with a signal too quiet might result in not enough distortion or character from the plugin.
On a bigger note, most analog-style plugins have a "virtual sweet-spot". Meaning they are designed to work best when receiving a signal with a certain volume level (usually -18dbfs).
Plugins are designed to receive a healthy signal level.
While recording too quiet is probably better than recording too loud, you should still aim for a healthy signal level.
To sum up, you should record at an audible level that doesn't go above 70% of the way. This will result in much cleaner, and mix-ready recordings. (Plus, your mixing engineer will LOVE you!)
Do you often record too loud? Did you ever ruin a great take because of clipping? Let us know and share your experience in the comments!
Don't forget to share with a friend as well!
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