Pam and John's "How To Record Yourself" Parts 1 & 2 (Audio & Video)

[howard]

Yep. You want to shoot for -12dB to -18dB for internal workflows in the DAW

Otherwise you’ll overdrive your amp sims. So, record and gain stage down.

[faydout]

Does this mean record at say 0db, then roll it back to -12 while mixing it? If so, that’s what I’ve been trying to do for all of the covers that I’ve done. I picked that tip up somewhere (maybe you?).

[howard]

@faydout

Does this mean record at say 0db, then roll it back to -12 while mixing it? If so, that’s what I’ve been trying to do for all of the covers that I’ve done. I picked that tip up somewhere (maybe you?).

I wouldn’t record at 0dB on the DAI/mixer meter; you still need some headroom. Shooting for -4 to -8dB there is probably a good plan. But then yes, gain stage down at the start of the effects chain and back up at the end; most plugins are modeled on the 0dbVU metered signal, which is -18dB full-scale digital in the DAW.

tl;dr, dBU, dBVU, and dBfs are all different scales, and the relationship between them matters.