FATSO: setting up proper levels

[Carnivale]

Hi there,

I just bought The EL7 FATSO but unfortunately it arrived without any
manual and for a total “newbe-musician-wannabe-producer” such as myself it is massive show stopper. I checked the Fatso's manual on EmpiricalLabs.com site but it didn't help...the problem is: I can’t figure out how to properly set up levels. Let’s say I’m getting reasonably good signal from Great River pre and my AD is registering about-18RMS to -4 Pick levels. So what would be the initial position of the Fatso’s input knob? And then the output?... For now, I set them both to 5 and it sounds really great but whenever my singer hits louder notes I hear some distortion (overload?!) though the GreatRiver pre and A/D are nowhere near clipping. This is not one of those "analog-pleasing distortion" and it is normally goes away when Fatso is in bypass mode. Can you help me out? I'm sure, it shouldn't be all that esoteric.

Any advice or tips would be very much appreciated. The unit is brand new

Thanks

Carnivale

[Plec]

It's FATSO distortion you're hearing
First of all you have to listen to what's going on, an uncompressed vocal into FATSO (if the vocalist is a dynamic person) will usually give you quite a lot of distortion, that I for one don't like.

Try using it on percussive instruments instead.

[Carnivale]

Well, all intimate parts are just fantastic but I guess I was just overloading the input section of Fatso. For the moment I decided to keep it down (2) and I think it helps. First I’d need to tune my ears for this unit to get more comfortable with all those glory tones and then I can get more adventurous with pushing the buttons.
Thanks
Carnivale

[Plec]

The 0VU reference can be quite handy at times. If you read the manual... when you see the 0VU light come on, the Fatso adds approx the same amount of distortion that would be apparent if hitting an analog reel-to-teel at 0VU (optimal level).

[Brad McGowan]

Just lower your mic pre level. Hitting your A/D at -4 dBFS means you are likely hitting the FATSO at +18 dBu. Would you hit tape that hard with vocals? Probably not. Just be more conservative in your gain staging and you'll be fine. I find that input and output set to 4 is just about right for me.

Brad

[Cojo]

Originally Posted by Plec

The 0VU reference can be quite handy at times. If you read the manual... when you see the 0VU light come on, the Fatso adds approx the same amount of distortion that would be apparent if hitting an analog reel-to-teel at 0VU (optimal level).

I always use the 0VU light as my reference and usually just let it flash at the peaks. If I want more harmonics I let the pinned LED light up. Then I just dial in the outputs from the fatso to match the levels I want.

[Plec]

I like mine in the red... all the time... even when it's quiet!
How's that for a sunburn!!!