Volume levels when recording
Posted: 16 May 2021 23:06
Volume levels when recording
When you are making a recording it's important that you keep your recording volumes down to a reasonable level. If anything, 'under record' your piece as the recording can always be put up to 'optimum levels' afterwards using a program like Audacity. If you 'over record' then you get 'clipping' (ie. the waveform is 'clipped' on those loudest bits at the top) and that causes distortion. Once this has happened there is no way back, as no program can put back the parts of the waveform that have been clipped.
Every time I record something from my AR Organ I get an 'under recording' as even with all the volumes up to MAXIMUM I can't get the volumes any higher. So putting my recording into Audacity I see something like this:
To get this up to optimal levels for listening, I first highlight the whole waveform (the background turns white, as in the above), either by clicking on the tab Select at the top, followed by All; or doing a Ctrl + A (hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter A).
Then go to the Effect tab and in the dropdown box click on Normalize.
Select what level you want to do the 'Normalize' to, 0.0dB being the very loudest without clipping. I normally do it to -2.0dB (decibels) unless there are 'spikes' of volume, in which case I would do it to 0.0dB to get the overall track as loud as possible.
Click OK. The resulting track (in blue) is what we are aiming for when recording.
And then when you have done all that you will need to SAVE your 'adjusted' waveform as an MP3. The operative word here is Export. Click on the tab File, then Export, then Export as MP3.
Give your file a File name, and at the top choose a Folder where it will be put. Then click Save (leave the 'defaults' as the program has them set).
When you are making a recording it's important that you keep your recording volumes down to a reasonable level. If anything, 'under record' your piece as the recording can always be put up to 'optimum levels' afterwards using a program like Audacity. If you 'over record' then you get 'clipping' (ie. the waveform is 'clipped' on those loudest bits at the top) and that causes distortion. Once this has happened there is no way back, as no program can put back the parts of the waveform that have been clipped.
Every time I record something from my AR Organ I get an 'under recording' as even with all the volumes up to MAXIMUM I can't get the volumes any higher. So putting my recording into Audacity I see something like this:
To get this up to optimal levels for listening, I first highlight the whole waveform (the background turns white, as in the above), either by clicking on the tab Select at the top, followed by All; or doing a Ctrl + A (hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter A).
Then go to the Effect tab and in the dropdown box click on Normalize.
Select what level you want to do the 'Normalize' to, 0.0dB being the very loudest without clipping. I normally do it to -2.0dB (decibels) unless there are 'spikes' of volume, in which case I would do it to 0.0dB to get the overall track as loud as possible.
Click OK. The resulting track (in blue) is what we are aiming for when recording.
And then when you have done all that you will need to SAVE your 'adjusted' waveform as an MP3. The operative word here is Export. Click on the tab File, then Export, then Export as MP3.
Give your file a File name, and at the top choose a Folder where it will be put. Then click Save (leave the 'defaults' as the program has them set).