Here you are, mic in place, instrument ready, player playing, life is good, one question remains: just how loud should you record that triangle part? Loud, very loud, extremely loud? What's the best level? Is there a best level? Should you care? Why should you care?
If you have asked yourself these kinds of questions, if you spend a lot of time discreetly resetting clip lights and wondering what your DAW is trying to tell you then this video is for you. If you have not asked yourself these questions, you probably should because proper recording levels are the first step in a good sounding track. So watch the video already and find out just where to park your levels to give yourself the best chance at that best engineer Grammy Award.
4.9
100 reviews
Mr Rambolini •Monday, October 3, 2022
Another gem! So informative.
bcc.geeks •Wednesday, March 23, 2022
DRMeter that Fab is using is no longer available. Link for the new one is below. At the time of this post it is $35 USD.
https://www.maat.digital/drmeter/
fernando.go •Saturday, June 27, 2020
Interesante todo el contenido. Me gustaría saber que interfaz podrían recomendar con buenos conversores. Gracias, un saludo.
iván_mauricio.c •Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Hi Fab, thanks for this video. Actually (2020) is still recomment to use -18dBFS as a RMS level? In my case, I use Cubase 10.5 pro, do you know how to be 100% sure that I'm metering -18dBFS? Thanks again.
EllieKim318 •Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Just would like to put out there that a lot of us watching are women and/or not men! So would greatly appreciate videos where it doesn't feel like it's assumed that the audience is male. It's 2020 ya'll, but other than that the teaching and music content itself is great. Thanks!
s.atkins@lafilm.edu •Monday, February 3, 2020
Would love it if y'all could do an updated version of this video explaining the new meter choices in Pro tools and how to set up the Advanced Meter Type Settings properly to match the interface. Been trying to find a good explanation online for a while but can't find an up to date video.
bassmothership •Sunday, January 19, 2020
Funniest video so far. Great stuff!
Kbmusiq •Saturday, November 9, 2019
Hey Fab, if I’m recording vocals in the production and recording stage what levels do I need to have the vocals? Is it still at -18db?
Thanks,
Kirkland
ProMix •Thursday, October 17, 2019
Hi , Fab .
SSL AWS console ( +27 dbu headroom ) convert to SSL Alphalink SX ( +22 dbu ) and reamp to console for mixing again .
what is sweet spot of DBFS ? -18 dbfs or what ?
claranieto •Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Hi!!
Geek question #3:
what happens if i
1. open a session recorded wit a interface who's reference @-18dBFs, with the intern sound card of a macbook pro,
2. the edit without touching gain or volume processing of any kind, and then save it
and then
3. open it back with the first interface
4. have i or protools changed anything level-wise? and resolution(bits)-wise?
A.Mazed.Brane •Sunday, October 14, 2018
Hi Fab !
So let's say I want to go back to older sessions that featured instruments recorded sometimes [way] above the sweet spot : will inserting a trimmer on these tracks do the trick to reduce the average gain of the track to -18dBFs or is it too late anyway ?
No hardware involved yet, except from D.I. takes with my U5, the rest straight into my audio interface
Bonus question : I did the Vance Powell mix contest and when downloading and importing the files in my DAW, most tracks were clipping as hell. Should I conclude it's because of my converters or was it recorded way too loud ?
benny.d •Saturday, July 7, 2018
bonjour et merci pour ses videos
je voulais savoir si il y avait besoins de cette analyseur pour enregistrer
avec la console virtuel de l'UAD?
j'avoue être un peu perdu avec tout ses -18
et surtout je me sert de la tranche SSL 4000 E Channel strip pour mes enregistrement
es ce que le -18 corespond au même que l'analyseur ?
En espérant avoir une réponse de votre part je vous en remercie d'avance
Musicalement :)
emersonmuse •Saturday, February 24, 2018
My interface says that reference level for 0 dBFS is +4dBu which I thought was good but at the end of this video you said +10dBu is crappy. How high should we shoot for?
DooBop •Saturday, May 20, 2017
How would you apply this to mixing a recording done by someone else?
Would you set the every individual track to around -18 as a starting point?
Would you also set the stereo bus to -18 ?
Many Thanks!
johntele •Wednesday, May 10, 2017
So using this knowledge, how does one translate this to specs of any interface and in relation to the DAW one is using?
