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How's My Gain?
Hi Everyone,
I want to get thoughts on my setup and specifically my OUTPUT.
Here's my rig:
- Acoustic violin with LR Baggs pickup
- Zoom U-44 audio interface
- 4th or 5th gen iPad (purchased in 2022)
- Loopy Pro
- A plethora of plugins: the first 4 plugins are general "tone shaping" and clean up
* Blue Mango Attack Softner (cut bow noise) http://www.bluemangoo.com/attacksoftener.php
* Blue Mango Gain Stage (for helping to reduce or morph the piezo pickup quack so to speak) http://www.bluemangoo.com/gainstagevintageclean.php
* Thafknar IR loader (https://polaron.de/Thafknar/index.xml) - I have violin IRs which I use to improve the tone to make it more "woody" or "natural"
* FabFilter Q3 - to clean up an EQ issues
..........................................then...........................................
* Eventide Crush Station - to bring the distortion /crunch to it
* FabFilter Timelesss (delay - using a "slapback" delay)
* Optional - Spring Reverb
Here's a video showing my signal
https://checkoutmyvidz.s3.amazonaws.com/gainReview.mp4
In this video the entire signal is routed through the one (singular) audio-bus shown. It's supposed to be a distorted fiddle /rockability type feel.
QUESTION: Is my signal level too low? Look at the signal in the video. And, look - at the end of the video - the signal as recorded by Loopy Pro.
The Zoom U-44 has a ("I think") built in amp or gain; which I typically set from 3-5.
Thanks for the feedback (pun intended)
AJ
Comments
The signal level is pretty low. What you are interested in is the signal level not gain. Gain is the amount of volume boost/cut.
It probably is worth your time reading articles about mixing.
You probably want to increase the fader level of your output. Your goal is to have the peaks always be below 0 db. Raise the signal level to achieve that.
Nice playing. Yeah, a bit low but more than adequate over an ipad8. Do you really need all that stuff?
I think there’s an AI app that’ll do it all for you. Maybe someone can supplement some kind of simpler solution.
It's useful to have healthy levels coming in from the audio interface, but that level will also affect the sound of the plugins in the chain - particularly the Gain Stage amp and Crush Station, so you probably don't want to start there to get the end-result levels you want unless you're ready to re-balance the whole chain.
I'd bring that fader up as @espiegel123 suggests. Personally I'd set it at 0db and make adjustments elsewhere until the peaks are just below 0db. Crush Station has an output level slider, so that's one place you can add or decrease gain. There are similar places in the chain where you can adjust the level. But keep in mind that levels going in to FX may affect the sound, and will definitely affect the amp and crush station.
It seems like a pain to work through the signal chain like that setting levels rather than just boosting the output. You may not want to do that if you're happy with the tone. But, to me it's worth it to target reasonable output levels with faders set to 0db, then use the fader mainly for mixing. It's just easier to see what's really going on that way. If you have a chain that ends up needing a 6db boost from the output fader, then you have to remember that the fader should be 6db higher in relation to other channels. It's a lot easier if "normal" levels occur at 0db and mixing adjustments are more visually represented by the relative fader levels.
I hope that makes sense. My explainerator isn't working too well this morning.
Don't be afraid to use the gain on the interface to get a hotter input level. It will help at every step along the line...
I'm with you on that - it's better to start healthy. But it's also important to note that will almost certainly lead to a change in tone. If the OP has the tone just right and isn't up for the work of re-balancing things, then just riding the output fader is a fair alternative.
Also, really really important to have it set low enough that you don't ever go over 0 db. With a reasonably quiet interface, it is better to have the level be a little low than to ever go over 0. Digital distortion at the input stage sounds awful. Most decent interfaces these days are pretty quiet. I'd target no more than -10 dB for my peaks at the input stage. A lot of of people use gainstaging strategies that were needed for tape because you needed the input signal to be significantly louder than a non-trivial noise floor. That noise floor is not an issue for decent digital equipment.
While that is true I would still start with a somewhat healthy input level (peaks around ~12dbFS) before even starting to 'shape the tone'. 3-5 on the Zoom is very low input gain...
+1