Producing Music Completely In The Box?

[The Winner]

When producing music completely in the box, what dangers should I be weary of? When I say “In The Box” I’m talking about using nothing but plugins for my instruments, dynamics and effects. What advice can you offer me.

[Curve Dominant]

Be conservative with input levels. IE: Don't record hot, or near clipping.

Use some decent outboard mic pres and compressors for tracking.

When the mixbus starts getting overloaded with signal, selct Group "All" and pull all those faders down a bit until the mixbus is breathing again.

Print your effects if/when the CPU starts gagging.

For me personally, those are the 4 most important things to do when ITB.

There's a million more things, but I'll let my illustrious colleagues chime in and see what they say.

[Curve Dominant]

Another biggie:

Plugin gain staging.

IE: You have a vocal track, and it's peaking around -4db. No clipping - that's good, don't clip ITB at all anywhere if possible. OK, anyhoo -

You add an EQ plugin insert, and high-shelf boost at 3Khz, about 2.5dB, for whatever reason, you just like the sound.

Then you add a compressor plugin after the EQ, and smush the vocal a bit, in the process, making it about 3dB louder, because that just sounds better when it's louder, right? Right.

But now, listen closely to the vocal: It's now clipping. Why? Because you added 3dB with the compressor, and 2.5dB with the EQ, and that equals 5.5dB or more (because, among other things, phase is an issue which can increase amplitude), and that's more of an increase than the headroom you had at -4dB.

You want to try to avoid that.

Subtractive EQing (cutting lows instead of boosting highs, for instance), helps you avoid that.

[Curve Dominant]

Here's another one I just thought of:

• SYSTEM INTEGRITY
Before you embark on a project, troubleshoot every aspect of your DAW. The computer itself, the software system's needs, and get a good external hardrive for sending the audio and session data to (you already knew that you can't run the software and the audio on the same disk, right? Well, you could but you'll prolly fry the disk mate, so don't).

Research this on the relevant forums. If you're using PT, go live on the DUC for a week. If it's DP, go to the MOTU site and lurk. You can never do enough research.

[The Winner]

Wow! Thanks! That was very helpful information.thumbsup

[TechnoCowboy]

Now I'm confused , if I'm not doing any recording(just using soft synths etc..) into the computer do I still need to keep my levels low? I thought if its digital it doesn't matter as long as its not clipping...?

Also , how important is it to record your audio/data to an external HD? Does it tax the main cpu too much if not? At last , if I'm mainly using Ableton Live and Logic what external drives do you recommend?


Love the forum...

Thanks,
B

[Curve Dominant]

Originally Posted by TechnoCowboy

Now I'm confused , if I'm not doing any recording(just using soft synths etc..) into the computer do I still need to keep my levels low? I thought if its digital it doesn't matter as long as its not clipping...?

You don't need to keep the levels "low" per se in any case. But they should be well short of clipping if you want an over-all mix that is clean and deep sounding.

My own hands-on experience is with audio recording, not so much with soft synths, although I do use Reason inside Pro Tools occasionally. But overloading an input is clipping it, whether you're actually recording or not.

There's also the overall effect on the L-R output mixbus, which will perform better if the tracks mixed to it are at reasonable levels.

Also , how important is it to record your audio/data to an external HD? Does it tax the main cpu too much if not? At last , if I'm mainly using Ableton Live and Logic what external drives do you recommend?

It is not merely important to record the audio to a drive other than the system drive that's running the OS and the DAW software - it is ESSENTIAL that you do this. One system drive running both the OS and recording and sending audio is too much work for one drive. I've seen local producers get all kinds of buggy breakdowns because they skimped on buying an external drive. I would personally recommend the LaCie D2 firewire drive.

[beyarecords]

Originally Posted by TechnoCowboy

Now I'm confused , if I'm not doing any recording(just using soft synths etc..) into the computer do I still need to keep my levels low? I thought if its digital it doesn't matter as long as its not clipping...?

The following information by Paul Frindle tells you why it is imperative not to exceed -6db ITB:

Q for Paul Frindle

Read the whole article as it is very informative indeed!