As long as you set your levels correctly on your mixer and the computer's input level, you shouldn't have any problems getting a good sounding mix.

Anything you play shouldn't have any clipping. Ie, the sources should be mastered well enough.

The problem is in you levels. Just make sure that you don't set the levels so they are in the red on the mixer.

And you can turn the recording volume down a few dB, and then master the mix afterward (just some compression and limiting.)

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It's not quite as easy as these chaps are making out...

Most soundcards have no headroom, i.e. they clip as soon as you hit 0dB. Even just a couple of peaks over this can spoil an otherwise perfect mix.

To make sure there's no chance of clipping, you actually need to stay well below the red: I usually set my levels to -6dB when I'm recording at home. This allows for increases in volume when you layer two tracks together, boost a bit of eq, apply an effect or whatever, and just for general higher peaks in the track - which can happen even with really well mastered tracks if you've got any analogue parts in your setup because the filters and amplifiers are never perfectly linear.

If by "live" you mean in a club, it's made even harder by nearly every DJ ragging systems into the red, so you often can't get the level down to your -6dB without people noticing quite a drop in volume (which is rarely received well).

If you're looking at recording live sets in a club, I'd consider one of the portable recorders on the market. I'm sure some of them must give enough headroom for you to still record a mix running into the red without too much trouble, but I'm afraid I don't know which.

As Mr PutBoy says, you'll want to do a bit of post processing to bring the level back up after recording. I'm quite lazy about it now and just normalise then put a limiter on it: threshold to 0dB, then slowly increase the pre gain until it starts to sound a little bit shit, then pull it back down a bit - job done.


Otherwise, if you want the expensive-but-best solution, buy a limiter and stick that between the mixer and your soundcard. Solves the problem both at home and in a club, but it's also more to lug around if you're taking it to a club.

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compressor and limiter!

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Compressor and limiter aren't really the solution for recording a live set, as stu says, give yourself some headroom before recording by gain staging properly.

90% of consumer mixers sound horrible when redlined so firstly avoid doing it on the individual channel gains . Then make sure the master is not clipping and again test with with two tracks in the mix so you can tell if it's clipping with layered tracks.

Then adjust those two to make sure your not coming in too hot to your soundcard. I never let it go above -3db. not a big deal but -6 might a bit overkill IMO as if you want it back up to close to 0db after some offline processing (because you are increasing the gain and therefore the relative noise so the more you have to it the worse the noise is etc.).

as stu and rann said, you need to make sure your levels are set properly

i myself like to lower the input on the soundcard waaay down so your peaks in the recording hit around -6db

with a pioneer mixer you can run into 2 reds, i like to stay within that sweet spot when i'm recording

although when i record live i use my minidisc player that has a limiter on it to prevent digital clipping and master it after

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quote:

Originally posted by Tony Morello with a pioneer mixer you can run into 2 reds, i like to stay within that sweet spot when i'm recording

IMO, never redline a pioneer mixer EVER. They sound like utter shit when redlined. Redline a allen and heath or vestax (if you really must) but never a pioneer. I can't tell you how many live sound engineers that detest pioneer for that reason.

quote:

Originally posted by Tony Morello although when i record live i use my minidisc player that has a limiter on it to prevent digital clipping and master it after

now that's a great method as long you don't run too hot in the rest of the chain before it.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Compressor and limiter aren't really the solution for recording a live set, as stu says, give yourself some headroom before recording by gain staging properly. 90% of consumer mixers sound horrible when redlined so firstly avoid doing it on the individual channel gains . Then make sure the master is not clipping and again test with with two tracks in the mix so you can tell if it's clipping with layered tracks. Then adjust those two to make sure your not coming in too hot to your soundcard. I never let it go above -3db. not a big deal but -6 might a bit overkill IMO as if you want it back up to close to 0db after some offline processing (because you are increasing the gain and therefore the relative noise so the more you have to it the worse the noise is etc.).

when i usually record which is half of the volume a track is mastered in and then adjust the whole waveform of the dj set in logic by raising the gain and zooming in one part of the set the track is in to its original mastered size. Is that an ok method?

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN IMO, never redline a pioneer mixer EVER. They sound like utter shit when redlined. Redline a allen and heath or vestax (if you really must) but never a pioneer. I can't tell you how many live sound engineers that detest pioneer for that reason.

i agree with you completely about never redlining ANY mixer, but i thought we were talking a live situation, and usually you have to deal with idiots redlining mixers, i was saying that in the case you have to play and it's redlined, the most you want to go is 2 bars before you really start to notice sound quality loss on a pioneer mixer

good point

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I heard that in one superclub they have a sign in the dj booth that reads "In the red you're dead!!"
They should have these signs in every club.

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quote:

Originally posted by coroknight I heard that in one superclub they have a sign in the dj booth that reads "In the red you're dead!!" They should have these signs in every club.

+1000000000000000. Where is that? Please get a pic of that!