Recording Question

Whistle
1

I use AudaCity to record my harmonica or whistle melodies. Sometime I have the over the peak limit problem and distort the track. Anyone can help me to prevent and aware of the over peak limit during the recording.

Thanks

2

Hi KC … Your recording input level is too hot. You need to turn it down and/or play more quietly.

  1. On the toolbar, find the Input Level Meter - two parallel bars above the microphone icon. If it’s not there, enable it in the Preferences|Interface menu.

  2. If the Meter is grayed-out, click the button next to the icon, and choose Enable Meter.

  3. Click the button again, and choose Start Monitoring. This lets you set your recording levels without actually recording.

  4. On the toolbar, find the Input Volume slider. In the drop down box, make sure the listed input source matches what you are actually using - Microphone, Line-in, etc.

  5. Play into your microphone at the loudest volume you expect to play, and watch the red bars. If they are hitting the far right side of the meter (0 dB), then your level is too high.

  6. Repeat step 5, and adjust the Input Volume slider so that the red bars never reach more than around 75% across or a bit more. That should correspond to a peak of around -3 to -6 dB, and give you some headroom to work with and normalize later.

  7. Now you’re ready to hit the record button. As you play, try to glance at the meter occasionally to make sure the levels are still OK.

Analog media like tape can handle some peak distortion, but digital flat-topping is a disaster and sounds terrible. So keep your levels lower. And control your playing volume, too. Remember you’re recording, not blasting a concert arena. Work the mike by backing away and moving closer as needed to maintain your levels. If you have an in-line compressor, some gentle 2:1 compression can also help.

Good luck!

3

Really good advice to anyone trying to record using a computer

4

Good reply MTGuru. I like your suggestions but I’d like to pick one nit. :slight_smile:

Would it be more accurate to say that analog tape can’t handle such dynamic peaks but the resulting tape saturation leaves a natural sounding type of compression? Digital recording mediums can handle the dynamic peaks and unfortunately preserve the results in our recordings.

Compressors are key to good recordings. They are the most important signal processor that you don’t hear (or shouldn’t hear). I, for one, always have the compressor inserted into the chain to record high whistles (really, it’s there all the time). Adding compression after recording isn’t going to solve the distortion issue either. It needs to be in-line as MTGuru suggests. If you don’t have a compressor learn to “work the mic” as MTGuru describes.

Feadoggie

5

MTGuru & Feadoggie:

Thank you very much for valuable information. I will follow the instruction to record my melodies to prevent over peak limit problem.

I am thinking to buy a compressor, do you have any suggestion about what kind of good quality and reasonable price compressor I should buy.

One of my friends told me good sound card may help the computer recording. Also I am not sure how good is good about sound card, I appreciate if anyone could suggest a good quality sound card and price range.

One more question, if I would like a decent computer recording system for music, what are the minimum equipments I need.

Thanks
KC