What db should i record at

Second, and this is really important, it gives you a chance to measure where their audio levels are while they're speaking so you can adjust as needed. Pike even suggests getting them to laugh or talk louder so you can see where their audio peaks. Let us know in the comments below. This is good advice. Too many times otherwise good short films are hurt by audio that was recorded too quietly or that is clipped.

These tips are really useful and you can use bcmon apk for monitoring wireless traffic. Skip to main content. No Film School. June 29, The most common place you see decibels used in the recording studio is with the level meters ….

Which can be found on many devices in your studio such as your DAW , audio interface , and more. At the top of a level meter, you notice a marking of 0 dBFS meaning 0dB full scale. This is the highest possible signal level the equipment can accommodate before clipping or distorting. Depending on who you ask, people will tell you to aim for anywhere between dB and -6dB when setting input levels for recording.

I find, dB to be a good compromise. Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Ask yourself…how many musicians truly understand what a decibel is? Not many, right?

Because the truth is, decibels are confusing. The good news is though…for audio recording, you only need to know a few basics. Since it is used as a relative unit of measure in audio recording, it can be used in three different contexts. Studio monitors are what music producers use to hear an accurate representation of the sound signal. The 3rd use of decibels, dBFS, is where we concern ourselves when trying to achieve an optimum recording level for vocals.

It can be anywhere as low as dB and is usually somewhere from to dB. The range of dB to -6dB that was mentioned in the beginning is based on the desired signal-to-noise ratio of an audio recording produced in that range. Mixing is the part of the song creating process where we are assessing all the musical elements and making sure they sound great for the listener.

The reason you want to mix your music is to make sure you can hear all the sounds at the correct levels and none of them are producing audio clipping. Audio clipping is when a sound goes beyond its maxed levels in the digital audio workstation and comes out distorted.

Listening to the vocals too loud or too quiet may cause you to incorrectly mix them, although you do want to test them at those levels too, you want to make sure that the majority of the mixing process is done at a comfortable volume level so that you can hear it correctly.

Once you have finished the mixing phase, you want to listen to your audio on a different range of devices such as cheap earphones, studio monitors, car radios and other devices you have lying around to make sure the audio sounds great.

Do not skip this, it can make a whole difference while mixing your audio! Mastering is when you prepare your audio for distribution. For example, they have the same volume level and sound great whilst switching between tracks. Before streaming music, mastering was where you create the final audio version where all the CDs and vinyl would be used to be copied from however that has changed due to evolution in the music industry.

Below is a great video that explains how important mastering really is and how it changes your song! The recording numbers talked about above have become a general consensus among recording engineers and mixers alike, as they provide a solid basis for one to get comfortable with the recording until they feel like they can accommodate certain recording levels depending on what the song calls for.

But first, here are just a few key things to be mindful of while you are getting your vocals into that optimal decibel range of dB to -6dB. As I briefly mentioned earlier, audio clipping occurs when a signal level is recorded over the 0dB limit that your DAW recording software can handle. However, this extra detail comes with a price, in the form of the size of the file and the extra processing power required for your computer. It is even further questioned when you consider that CDs have a bit depth and a