Volume levels when recording

[Hugh-AR]

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).

[Rev Tony Newnham]

Hi

Relevant information there Hugh. If you have proper meters in your system, then zero dB on a VU meter (5 on a PPM) should be set to correspond with -18dBfs on the digital recorder (some "standards say -20 & I've also come across -12. Don't you just love standards - that's why we have so many of them!!!) That allows plenty of headroom for most unexpected peaks.

Hugh mentions "normalising" which is the way to go, but you should, for the best results, never normalise to 0dBfs, no higher than -1dBfs. This is a bit "technical" but it seems some digital players interpolate between digital samples, and will under certain circumstances try to go above the 0dBfs limit, causing distortion, so -1ddBfs is safest. With the hymn videos I set the normalisation to various figures between -1 & -6 depending on the overall required volume of the song (so that quieter hymns replayed quieter) - the majority are -1 or -3dBfs.

In recent years, a new audio metering system has been introduced for TV & Video, using something called "Loudness Units". It's supposed to stop the vast difference in audio level between programmes & adverts on TV (it doesn't seem to be working too well), but I've not yet tried using it so won't comment further.

If you really want to go in depth into the audio settings, Bob Katz's book on audio mastering is a good, but pretty technical, read. He's also published one on mastering for iTunes, etc.

Every Blessing

Tony

[Hugh-AR]

On most keyboards these days you can record directly to WAV (or MP3) on the keyboard so don't have to use external equipment to do it.

Michael Clark (mikeg) plays a Tyros 2 and sings as well (he plays and sings for functions), so he has two parts of his recordings he has to keep an eye on .. the volume level of his keyboard, and the volume of his microphone. He likes a lot of 'reverb' on his voice, and his accompaniment is just that .. accompaniment .. so should not be the dominant part of the recording.

Michael sent me the WAV file of him playing Mack The Knife on his Tyros 2 for me to check for volume levels. I use Audacity to do this, so put his WAV file into the program.

When you are running Audacity you can choose to highlight any 'clipping' taking place, which shows up as being 'in the RED'.

Click the tab View (at the top) and make sure the Show Clipping option is ticked.



This is the waveform of Michael's recording, with the 'Show Clipping' option ticked.



So that you can hear the effect of 'clipping' at this level, here is a short MP3 of this track for you to listen to. I'm sure you know what to expect, so don't have your volume up too high on your speakers/headphones.

Click the LINK below to listen, and then click the back-arrow at the top to get back to this page.
DEMO of a recording with extensive 'clipping'

The obvious conclusion to all this is to turn the volume down when recording, so Michael turned his volume down (and sang the song too) and this is the waveform of it.



Really? Looks not a lot different to me.

Listen to a short extract of Mike singing it (you know what to expect .. keep that volume down!).

Click the LINK below to listen, and then click the back-arrow at the top to get back to this page.
Clip of Michael singing 'Mack The Knife'

Keep the volume down? No difference. What neither he nor I realised is that the Master Volume Control on the keyboard has no effect whatsoever on the recording level. You can have the Master Volume Control at any level you like, so turn it for a convenient volume for listening to what you are recording.

If the Master Volume Control makes no difference to a recording .. what does?

When you set up your keyboard for recording ...

In the AUDIO RECORDER press the REC and the STOP buttons together (it does say NEW AUDIO underneath, with a line joining them) and then release the buttons.



This is the screen you get.



A choice of recording modes comes up. What we want to do is a SIMPLE recording, so press the button next to that.

We now get this screen. Note what is showing behind the OK message.



Confirm by pressing the button next to OK. The green light by the REC is flashing at you telling you it's ready to record.

The screen showing directly in front of you now is the one that was behind the OK message. This shows the RECORDING LEVEL.
The 'default' is 90.



By pressing the appropriate buttons under the screen you can change the recording volume to whatever you like. The maximum recording volume is 127. The way to go is the other way!

. .

I suggested to Michael that he should try an overall recording level of 30; with his microphone on a recording level of 90.

So he did that, and this is the result:

Mack The Knife played and sung by Michael Clark.
Do a right-click to open this up in a New Tab.
https://app.box.com/s/r9ty64fn919e4vm8zb8hyklix6tfwbuf

And this is the waveform of it:



Sounds fine, looks fine. A bit of RED here and there makes no odds, but I suggested that maybe next time he should have his overall recording level on 30, and his mic on 85.

The moral of all this is ...

You set the recording level using the REC MONITOR on the SIMPLE RECORDER screen.
The Master Volume Control you turn to the best position for listening. The Master Volume Control has no effect whatsoever on the recording level.