Recording "hot" vs recording not and boosting in post

[boojum]

This may be simple for you guys, but it has me stumped. If I record (SD 722) "hot" with my levels up in the "yellow" and the occasional "red" (limiter set at -3dB) it is louder in my editor (SAM 10.1 Master) on playback than something recorded always in the "green" and normalized to -.45 db.

Why is that?

I can even turn the volume down on the "hot" recording and have it louder than the normalized to -.45 dB recording.

Thanks for any help as I am completely stumped by the discrepancy between the visual in the editor and the aural.

Thank you.

[dannygold]

Originally Posted by boojum

This may be simple for you guys, but it has me stumped. If I record (SD 722) "hot" with my levels up in the "yellow" and the occasional "red" (limiter set at -3dB) it is louder in my editor (SAM 10.1 Master) on playback than something recorded always in the "green" and normalized to -.45 db.

Why is that?

I can even turn the volume down on the "hot" recording and have it louder than the normalized to -.45 dB recording.

Thanks for any help as I am completely stumped by the discrepancy between the visual in the editor and the aural.

Thank you.

I'm not %100 sure what you're asking, but what I think is happening is that the hot recorded things have more apparent loudness because of limiting. Thus even when you turn them down they sound louder because they have more average level. Remember, our ears are imperfect transducers. Meters measure reality, not perception.

[boojum]

Danny, guys like you are why I hang around here. Yes! Normalized normalizes to peaks not the overall loudness. When I run the limiter it allows a lot more "loud stuff" almost like I ran a compresser.

Thank, you, thank, you, thank you.

[manman]

To make it really hot try these things:

1. Cut frequencies below 30hz and above 20 khz [User UAD cambridge, or Kjarous Eq7]

2. Use So called Maximizers such as before going to limiter

a. Sonox Inflator [bring levels up about 30%]
b. Waves L3 Multimaximizer [here just limit a little may be3 db in gain reduction ]

3. Use High quality limiters.

4. Use high quality compressor before limiting that brings apparent loudness up. [may be try PSP Master Compressor, Tracks 3 yellow compressor] But these methods i think suited for low quality production at home if you want make your recording sound good loud at low levels.