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aquanaut
Joined: Apr 25, 2004 Posts: 313 Location: Montreal
Audio files: 4
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Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:29 pm Post subject:
Is there such thing as no noise on a channel |
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many questions here
i'm trying to mix down my latest songs and utterly fail at bringing the mix up to commercial cd levels. I'm always a few notch down the mark but thats not the only problem. When i push the multiband compressor (+40input+40out) plus a bit of 6db around 10k i get too much noise but i like how the mix is sounding overall (airy and spacy). for those raising their eyebrow on the fact that the compressor is pushed at that level and that alone should answer the question. i know..but if i don't push the thing up i get no sound out of the interface(and the input on the m-audio mixer are at maximum) ex: music from the thinner archives sounds way more hotter than what i hear from my stuff. I'm recording a microq and a sampler both with balanced outs and with trs 1/4 cable into an m-audio fw1814 that has unbalanced inputs. Could that alone be the problem? And is around -30db a proper noise floor? Or should i see a noise floor that is at least around -60. |
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seraph
Editor
Joined: Jun 21, 2003 Posts: 12398 Location: Firenze, Italy
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Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:54 pm Post subject:
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reading your message I think something is wrong. I don't know exactly but having to push the compressor all the way does not seem the way to go. firstly I would try TS cables. you know we have the same audio interface but I have neved been forced to do anything like you do. _________________ homepage - blog - forum - youtube
Quote: | Don't die with your music still in you - Wayne Dyer |
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elektro80
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 2:28 am Post subject:
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Seraph is right. This is weird. _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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Kassen
Janitor
Joined: Jul 06, 2004 Posts: 7678 Location: The Hague, NL
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 4:28 am Post subject:
Re: Is there such thing as no noise on a channel |
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aquanaut wrote: | And is around -30db a proper noise floor? Or should i see a noise floor that is at least around -60. |
60 sounds reasonable, but it´s on the bottom edge of reasonable. 60 is the noise floor of vinyl and cdplayers have a lower one (cd as a medium has a even lower one but that´s insignifficant for masters since it´s no the bottleneck). 30 is unaceptable. _________________ Kassen |
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elektro80
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 5:07 am Post subject:
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I don?t know what the levels out from the MicroQ and that other thingie are at. I think you have some sort of problem with the gain structure.
first of all I would recommend that you get some sort of compressor/limiter device in between the instruments and the interface. You will then be able to properly adjust the levels and add some very subtle compression and peak management. The whole point at this stage is to manage the signal and make it recordable. "recordable" does of course mean that it won?t clip the interface input and you are free to adjust the "hotness" and the "thickness" of the signal depending on what you need. "thinkness" mean dynamics processing.
You can get pretty acceptable results with some of the Behringer and Alesis compressors unless you ry to run them hot and use them as you would old analog high end compressors. That they won?t do at all. there are of course better devices out there, but be aware than some of these that actually sound better do have significantly more noise.
However, it is correct that the noise level as such isn?t really that bad, but something is up anyway. I have no idea how you make those recordings of yours, but have you looked into muting/gateing channels?
When you record analog gear you most definitively would want to look into this. _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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aquanaut
Joined: Apr 25, 2004 Posts: 313 Location: Montreal
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2005 2:54 pm Post subject:
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Thanks for all the info
I'm squashing the mix a bit too much and those unbalanced inputs are probably giving me the unwanted hiss..I've check the noise floor on a couple of cd and there's a lot a variation some have a hiss early on some are dead quiet..Now do i kiss goodbye the Protools compatibility and exchange this unit for the presonus firepod..i don't know and i hate to gamble. more coffee
thanks again |
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