Recording Distortion

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Member Since: Jun 03, 2009

I've been home recording for a while now and with practice I've got my recordings to sound pretty decent. My only problem now is when i record electric guitar (miking the amp), i get a small bit of digital distortion in the playback. I believe that I'm overloading the preamp of my mixer, but i can't be sure. I have lowered levels both on the mixer and amp but I don't want to compromise the tone of my amp by turning the volume down too much. Any ideas?

My set up is sm57 to a yamaha mg16/4 mixer, stereo split into a firewire 410 interface into a mac with pro tools m-powered. The guitar track has a slight limiter on it.

The guitar signal comes through the amp clean and is in an isolated, padded room. This distortion also only happens with guitar, not drums or vocals or anything else.

Let me know if I've left out anything else important. Any ideas?

Thanks so much!

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Member
Since: Jun 03, 2009

Jun 03, 2009 08:37 pm

If anyone's ever heard the song "Slow Night, So Long" by The Kings of Leon, the part at the end (the latin sounding last minute or two where he sings "Rise and shine all you gold digging mothers...") has the exact distortion I'm referring to.

Thanks again!

Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Jun 03, 2009 09:06 pm

Well, digital distortion is caused by the sginal being to hot into the software. You would know if it was that as your meters in your software would be hitting the red hard. If that isn't the case then it is being caused by the signal chain before it hits the audio interface.

PT M-powered is a bit picky on the interface it uses as well.

Have you looked at the meters on the 410 while this is happening to make sure they are not hitting the red either?

Member
Since: Jun 03, 2009

Jun 03, 2009 09:16 pm

I think you may be right on that one. It does go into the red when the signal distorts but the drums also make it clip and there's no audible distortion. Of course that could just be because you can't really hear the distortion over drums...

But i also have the 410's signal gain completely down with the -20 db pad on constantly so i can isolate and just use the gain on my mixer so how could I get the level on it any lower?

Thanks for the quick response.

http://www.reverbnation.com/2ndg
Member
Since: Nov 27, 2007

Jun 04, 2009 12:30 am

in your software, you dont want to come even any where close to the red. even the orange. turn everything down.

you need some headroom at least. you could go down to -10dB. as a minimum.
-18.86dB digital is equivalent to 0 dB. analogue.

Its not worth risking any distortion by going too loud when you can just fix the loudness after you do mixdown.

also, and i guess its up to you at the end of the day,
but you dont need a limiter on a distorted guitar track.





Member
Since: Jun 03, 2009

Jun 04, 2009 01:47 am

i don't let any of my tracks go orange or red when they're recording. and when i do do a final mix down with a master fader and everything turned down the distortion is still heard...

and i prefer a limiter to compression on my guitar tracks so i can keep them the way they are played (maybe quiet parts or a varied attack) but keep anything from popping out and breaking ear drums.

thanks for the advice!

http://www.reverbnation.com/2ndg
Member
Since: Nov 27, 2007

Jun 04, 2009 04:45 am

on the limiter and compression thing, if youre having probs with it being too hot i can see why you'd wanna limter on it.

its weird that you cant get you volume down for recording. must be some setting on the mixer.




Czar of Midi
Administrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002

Jun 04, 2009 06:57 pm

The reason the drum can go red or clip without the distortion you are hearing on the guitar track is that it is a very fast transient sound. As opposed to the guitar having a lot more sustain to it, which would allow the distortion to be heard more.
You need to have the 410 input gain set at unity, and not cutting it like that. That is probably why you are clipping the input on the 410 because you have an extremely hot signal coming from the mixer.

Nothing should go over unity gain at all, unless you are looking for a high gain sound on an amp or similar. Pushing a pre amp to hard will as well cause that type of distortion as well.

Member
Since: Jun 03, 2009

Jun 05, 2009 02:32 am

thanks so much for your responses guys. i'm gonna try to work on it with the help of all your suggestions.

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