When it comes to getting a great recording in your studio, so much of the final mix stems from the basics: proper mic placement on a good source in a decent space. But part of that is proper recording levels. Obviously we don’t want our levels to be too quiet so we don’t have enough gain to work with in the mix. Likewise we don’t want to be hitting the “red” every time either. So how hot are ARE we supposed to record? Well, if you are recording digital (i.e. with your computer) then the answer is “probably not as hot as you think.”
Via James Cridland Flickr
Noise Floor
It used to be that engineers tried to get as much signal on a track to mask the inherent noise of things like tape hiss. The goal was set your levels to be as hot as you can get without clipping. This went a long way to keeping the audio as “clean” sounding as possible. In today’s popular digital audio workstations (DAW) we aren’t recording to tape or using a ton of noisy analog gear. We have a much quieter noise floor with a lot less to “mask.” In fact one of people’s biggest complaints with digital recording is just how transparent and accurate it is. It’s quiet…a little TOO quiet!
Digital Clipping Vs Analog Clipping
Another major thing to keep in mind is that part of the “sound” of analog recording is the natural distortion or saturation that occurs when you overload the signal to tape. It smears and softens audio in a way that is actually quite pleasing to the ear. Many engineers purposefully would push their gain pretty hot when recording things like drums to tape, knowing they could get this killer sound if the meters were hanging on the edge of disaster so to speak.
This is not so with digital recording, at all. When you clip in Pro Tools or any other recording software you get nasty, ugly, harsh, brittle, digital distortion. Not pleasing and not useful to your sound. You don’t even want to dance anywhere close to clipping on any of your individual tracks or the master bus, ever.
24 Bit Is A Live Saver
So here’s the great thing about your DAW. These days we all can have access to recording at 24 bit. These extra bits basically give you a ton of headroom. If you record at 24 bit you have upwards of 144db of dynamic range. What does that mean? You can record at lower levels into your system and still have clear, noise free audio ready to rock.
So don’t record so hot. If your meters are jumping up to -6db or -3db consistently then you’re probably rocking to much gain. Dial it back a bit so you’re hitting just half way to two thirds up the meter. This is subjective of course, but the point is you have no need whatsoever to “record as hot as you can without clipping.” That old axiom is just irrelevant to us digital users.
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
Good Stuff Graham, Thanks
This is absolutely one of the best Audio Blogs on the web.
Thanks so much guys!
Good post, just wrapped up a recording where I kept all the tracks level @ zero,
end result the master peaks 3/4 up. Previous stuff I would try peaking all tracks to just under clipping, then it played havoc on the master always clipping.
Good info I had no idea I was recording too hot.
Seems that the issue of recording at Unity and Beyond crops up daily in the various blogs. Which basically means, much harder to control the temptation of recording Hot then it appears on the surface. I have always forced myself to record below unity (and I mean forced). However, you indicate that even a -6 to -3 db may be a little hot. My hand may shake but I will draw down some more. I have experienced clipping on the master channel and wondering whether I need to push downward.
I read an interesting rule on another site – Once you get the channel at a level where you “think” it is not to hot – Bring it dow 3dbs more. May be overkill but interest way to force you off the DB addiction.
As always thanks for the great insight…
Marc – I know what you mean. It goes against everything I feel in my bones sometimes. But digital clipping is just so bad, it’s not worth playing close to that line. Thanks for the comment!
i realize now that the entire body of work i am trying to mix now was recorded WAAAAAAY too hot.. in face mixing all day with my colleague on Fourth of July we actually had my Mackie MR8 MkII’s shutting down due to heat in the amps..
Am still thinking in an analog way.. gotta get used to keeping it down..
My challenge now is to get this amazing, albeit recorded way too hot, material mixed and ready for mastering.
I’m afraid there will be no headroom for the mastering engineer to work his magic in..
“Record as hot as you can without clipping” has been ingrained in my mixing since the days I recorded with my Fostex Model 80 reel-to-reel. That explains a lot about my hot mix issues today in the digital world! After reading this, I will no longer be afraid to back off the input gain ever again! Thanks for an awesome tip! This is the very best site for home recording I’ve ran into yet. And I’ve been Googling one heck of a long time!
You’re welcome! Glad you found the site.
Graham. You have been a great blessing to me in learning how to mix. Here’s my question.
1. Where should my sweet spot levels be on master buss prior to putting plugins on my individual tracks? I know you said the digital sweet spot especially on pro tools is -18. Is that before or after plugins.
2. What is the optimum level to be at on the master buss after the insertions of plugins?
That’s before plugins on the individual track level. That’s the only place I really worry about gain staging. On the master fader I just want to leave some headroom for mastering (3db to 6db).
Hey Graham, so I have always had trouble with the loudness of my song as a whole. If I record a track at a lower level, it is hard to hear. Sometimes the master track shows clipping, even if that one recorded track is not clipping. Any suggestions?
Hi Allan,
It depends on what your meters are showing you. If your meters are showing you what’s happening PRE fader then they may not show clipping but your plugins could be clipping your on the way to your master fader.
But that shouldn’t be the case if you are just recording, with no plugins.
Here’s my dilemma.
Method I was previously using was preamp until the meter peaks at most around -3dbfs on the DSP mixer. My recorded waveform looks full w/ no clips. Track sounded great. When applying compression where I needed it I never came anywhere near -35db on the threshold to get it to to kick in.
This Method: preamp until meter on the DSP mixer reads an average of -18bdfs. From here on take results from above and pretty much reverse them. Track still sounds fine I just need more monitor volume. I’m obviously doing something wrong. I’m using a Fast Track Ultra 8r and Cubase. Thanks in advance for your help and have a great day.
I see this idea being pushed all over these days. IMHO it’s misguided. The problem with “hot mixes” in the digital world is not due to you using all the resolution you have available on each of your 24bit tracks but rather your DAW’s SW lacks sufficient resolution to control the signal. When mixing you have to turn each track down (which is fine we did this in the analog days too) but you will find that adjusting the level with your DAW’s controls when they are set low is very course. You just can’t make the kind of “fine” adjustments to your level that is needed for mixing.
IMHO the best solution to this problem as of 10/14/2013 is to run all of your tracks out to an analog mixer or summing device where you can have “infinite” resolution that an analog fader will provide. Sure you need a quality mixer to handle 140db+ but they exist. Yes it’s not as cheap and easy as just recording your signal low.
IMO by recording tracks low to avoid the limitations of your DAW is a step backwards… sure most people won’t ever notice the difference but I still record, “hot”.
Thanks a lot graham…! you’re the man. Some wise guy from some blog i read almost an year ago when i started to work with DAWs told me that -3db is the sweet spot. argh!… I’ve been making this mistake so long and then i realized myself that something is wrong and i started to pull the faders down. But, Now i completely understand whats going on. Thanks again.
Hi,
I smashed away at this for another couple weeks after my last reply back in September 2013. At the end of the day I came to the conclusion that I WAS recording too hot. I then proceeded to wipe my “catalog” clean and start over from scratch. I now record everything to “line level” or +4dBu or “0” on an “ANALOG” VU meter (INTERNATIONAL STUDIO STANDARD LINE LEVEL)and everything works like a charm. I use a lot of outboard gear and before I switched to recording at this level I always had to drop the outputs on my interface and in the back of my mind I always kind of thought something was off. Having to drop faders for signals leaving my interface in order to accommodate tracks recorded at insane levels pretty much took the “exact science” right out of the equation and turned my work into a debauch. Mixing time has been cut in half now that I’m not wheeling faders up and down in the DSP mixer. I record the whole band to line level, fire up my rack gear, press play and mix like a mad man. No more messing around fixing what I screwed up in the first place. Thanks for taking the time to post this Graham. This information is pretty much priceless.
Cheers,
Nice!
Jay,
Great article! Thanks! Do you think it’s possible to record too low in that your audio can become grainy? What would you consider “too low” in 24bit, or is there such a thing?
Thanks
Hello! Please Help!
I use GB. Whenever I pull in a reference track. Why is it even after its mastered, pretty much constantly in the red for most of the time? I don’t quite understand mastering because i thought it was only supposed to get as close to 0db as possible without clipping. I don’t get it???
Also all the GB instruments that I use, (drum machine, Piano etc.) all clip straight away when I press a key. That suggests that it’s ok to record on that level.
I record as quiet as possible, never over -6db (only once or twice in a really loud bit ) but prior to Graham’s wonderful instructions, I recorded much to hot. All stuff I did before I knew about this approach, I have remixed and turned the tracks down so when it’s mastered, it will be ok. Does that work?
Do I need to ensure both my tracks and master fader are not anywhere near zero?
Whats the deal?? Graham!! somebody! Please help!!
Joel
Great post, Graham! I am a beginning engineer and I have a question. I’m not sure if it contradicts what you are saying or I am simply confused, but I read a while back that digital recorders capture more resolution at hotter levels because they are using more bits to capture the sound. This, the author said, is why 0DBFs (operating level or “sweet spot”) is the highest you can go in a DAW without clipping. The hotter the signal is recorded, the greater its bit resolution. Thus, I interpreted this to mean I should record every source as hot as possible. Thoughts?
Horrible advice. Because of the super high resolution of 24 bit converters we all have these days, your audio will sound amazing super quiet and relatively loud. There’s no reason to “use up all the bits” as that argument goes.