Daw vocal recording peak?

[Doc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by finlove

what peak do your vocals peak at in ur DAW??
When mine go into the yellow i get an annoying kinda hot sound tho maybe its beacuse i havnet compressed anything

Turn the gain on your preamp down. "Yellow is the new red" says Terry Manning. He's right. With 24 bit recording, there is NO reason to slam the level. I print a lot of stuff to -6, [and that would be hot] but it all depends what the +4, 0 VU reference level your AD converter is calibrated to. Don't print hot, the recordings actually breath better when you don't. If you have 24 tracks of pain and punishment and cannot record a vocal at a normal level, compression is your best friend in my experience, but you can certainly take it to far.

[finlove]

by hot i mean its kinda ear priercing...
is this normal for vocals reaching into the yellow on the daw??
so i guess i should not excede the yellow in my daw when recording vocals????

[Lagerfeldt]

Vocals?

-12 dBFS to -6 dBFS max.

[finlove]

yeah but -6 is in the yellow so this should be a no go area right?

[Doc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by finlove

by hot i mean its kinda ear priercing...
is this normal for vocals reaching into the yellow on the daw??
so i guess i should not excede the yellow in my daw when recording vocals????

Turn it down. Use your ears. Turn off your DAW screen and listen to the audio. If it sounds bad, turn it down. If it sounds fine, leave it alone. Do what the music requires, nothing more, nothing less.

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by finlove

yeah but -6 is in the yellow so this should be a no go area right?

The colors don't mean squat in DAW. They're basically arbitrary. Look at the peak level.

Recording in 24 bits and aim for a peak level of around -12 dBFS and you will be absolutely fine in all aspects of your recording. At least in respect to your A/D and DAW.

Originally Posted by Roc Mixwell

Turn it down. Use your ears. Turn off your DAW screen and listen to the audio. If it sounds bad, turn it down. If it sounds fine, leave it alone. Do what the music requires, nothing more, nothing less.

Some artifacts barely audible when recording, such as a clipped vocal or other distortion may become more apparent once processed several times during mixing. Distortion and other artifacts accumulate.

Instead use your common sense, your eyes AND your ears.