Hey,
Im having a bit of trouble setting the gains correctly. Could someone give me some advice on this part of mixing. Do i just need to look at the meters on my mixer (DN-X1500) and match the db level or do i need to ignore the levels and just listen in my headphones and use them to set the gains?

Thanks in advance
Liam

Look at the meters.

Set the gains so the db level peaks at 0db.

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put the needle on the loudest part of the track (usually the bit after the breadkwon) and set it there.

quote:

Originally posted by JakeC put the needle on the loudest part of the track (usually the bit after the breadkwon) and set it there.

+1. that way if the beginning of a track isnt as loud, it isnt obnoxiously loud

razzi.

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Yes but i thought that vinyls were written at different levels and that some are slightly quieter than others so you need to set the gains slightly differently?

Thanks
Liam

quote:

Originally posted by LiamPaddock Yes but i thought that vinyls were written at different levels and that some are slightly quieter than others so you need to set the gains slightly differently? Thanks Liam

Yes you do need to set the gains slightly differently and that is what you are doing by setting em to 0db.

if you are gonna record into a pc i suggest you peak at around -3db.

argh! whats the loudest tune you've got? find the loudest part of it. its usually the point in the song where everything is in towards the end. if you have trouble with this run it through a spectrum analyser to find it out exactly. most professional tunes these days are written so that they peak as close to 0 dB as possible and most are compressed or mastered in a way where (when the song is all in) they are pretty much flat across all frequency up to 20,000hz and peaking close to 0 dB but NEVER over. in a spectrum analyser you will see what it looks like. starts with a big cut away from 0 to 10 hz. begins to pick up around 20 to 30 hz. sharply increases after 30 hz so that it is peaking close to 0 dB at around 50 to 60 hz and it goes pretty much flat from that point onwards till around 20,000hz or so where it drops off suddenly. run a couple of your fav songs through an analyser and you will see pretty much the same trend with most trance songs.

ok. now we have that sorted its back to the mixer. set the channel fader so that it is on 0 dB exactly. now increase the gain until the signal of your loudest track peaks so that it is right on to the channel fader 0 point. if you have done it right the dB meter on the mixer should increase and decrease with the fader 0 point and both will be alligned. thats what you want. this also ensures that as long as the dB meter never goes above 0 dB, you will never ever clip off. it also means that you always have a visual reference of the loudest song you have and its visible on the dB meter and channel fader position when a song clearly is not peaking at the same level. in which case you can increase the channel fader beyond 0 dB so that the dB meter is peaking close to 0 dB. this is why mixer channel faders always go higher than 0 dB (usually up to +6 dB or so), so that you can compensate for the quieter tracks by increasing their level without clipping. always return the channel fader back to 0 dB after a mix again for reference purposes.

it is fairly rare that there will be more than a 6 dB difference in between pro tracks at their loudest point. if it is that much quieter it is a really shitly produced record or its a completely different style of music.

the dB meter should NEVER go above the 0 point of the channel fader. if it does it means thats your new loudest track and you should have used that one as a reference for all your other tunes provided of course that you havent increased the gains at any point.

EDIT: just to make this absolutely clear. NEVER let the signal level on the dB meter go above 0. NEVER. satan kills a kitten every time you let this happen. have mercy on the kittens. set your mixer up correctly.

Last edited by Derivative on Mar-16-2005 at 04:33