Volume of a recorded clip look

[OUNULK]

Hello, I am recording a Nord Lead 2 synth through my Focusrite pre-amp ins into Bitwig. The volume knobs on my synth are all the way up, and I've adjusted the gain knobs on the Focusrite so that they almost go red when I record, but don't.

When I examine the recorded clip in Bitwig, I see this:

nord.png

I'm surprised by how much space there is between the wave and the "top", like the peaks look "small". Does this mean my recorded audio is a bit quiet? I thought the "volume" would be as close to max without clipping, since the pre-amps were just below red.

Can someone help me understand the situation, and best practices for recording my own samples?

[thecontrolcentre]

That looks ok to me. There's no clipping going on (which is good). You could always add a little gain to the wav file if you want it louder ...

[BertKoor]

This is perfectly normal, even a bit on the loud side already. Let me explain...

For acoustic recordings a headroom of 20dB is adviced. That means the average amplitude is 20dB below full scale. On a VU meter that is usually where it goes from green to amber.

Your peak volume looks around 4 or 5 dB below clipping. Mind you, every 6dB means the amplitude is doubled or halved. 18dB is exactly 3x halved: one eighth or 12.5% of full scale.

With your recording, if another 3 keys get pressed, then the amplitude will go up by 12 dB. With velocity sensitive patches the amplitude can go up as well. You have no headroom left for that. So now you have recorded it too loud from an engineering point of view.

When mixing this into a track you have no other option than to lower the volume. Otherwise adding another track will cause the summed result to go over 0dB and clip.

[kritikon]

It looks like there's also a fair amount of noise going on also. There's activity inbetween the notes that's quite noticeable. How are you recording (i.e. what inputs - line input jacks, XLR, balanced/unbalanced etc)? I'm not familiar with Nord Lead2, so dunno how noisy it is, but that looks like a lot of noise...

[OUNULK]

It looks like there's also a fair amount of noise going on also. There's activity inbetween the notes that's quite noticeable. How are you recording (i.e. what inputs - line input jacks, XLR, balanced/unbalanced etc)? I'm not familiar with Nord Lead2, so dunno how noisy it is, but that looks like a lot of noise...

I think the cables I'm using are TS... Going from OUT A and OUT B to Gain 01 and Gain 02 on my focusrite.

nord3-hqx9cCoLZmrN7NdycOkSiyWx2mwgPu_s.jpg

Am I doing something wrong?

[roman.i]

Am I doing something wrong?

Hey, Nord lead 2x owner here.
You're doing ok, nothing wrong.
Look at your level meters, they should be quite low by default, like -18dbfs peaks
since some sounds are quiet, some others can be loud,
you don't want to clip accidentally.
There is nothing wrong with recording a quiet sound and normalizing it after.
If the sound is too quiet for you, use the gain knob / plugin in your daw.

[OUNULK]

Am I doing something wrong?

Hey, Nord lead 2x owner here.
You're doing ok, nothing wrong.
Look at your level meters, they should be quite low by default, like -18dbfs peaks
since some sounds are quiet, some others can be loud,
you don't want to clip accidentally.
There is nothing wrong with recording a quiet sound and normalizing it after.
If the sound is too quiet for you, use the gain knob / plugin in your daw.

Thanks for the sanity check.
What about the previous comment saying it looks like there's some noise showing in between the notes? Even if I turn the gain knows on my focusrite all the way down I still see those noisy bits in the recorded audio file.

[vurt]

Am I doing something wrong?

Hey, Nord lead 2x owner here.
You're doing ok, nothing wrong.
Look at your level meters, they should be quite low by default, like -18dbfs peaks
since some sounds are quiet, some others can be loud,
you don't want to clip accidentally.
There is nothing wrong with recording a quiet sound and normalizing it after.
If the sound is too quiet for you, use the gain knob / plugin in your daw.

Thanks for the sanity check.
What about the previous comment saying it looks like there's some noise showing in between the notes? Even if I turn the gain knows on my focusrite all the way down I still see those noisy bits in the recorded audio file.

you should be set to line for a direct synth output

in the software you can choose instrument or line.

[vurt]

also how does it sound? can you hear lots of noise? or is it a slight hiss in the speaker?

[roman.i]

Thanks for the sanity check.
What about the previous comment saying it looks like there's some noise showing in between the notes? Even if I turn the gain knows on my focusrite all the way down I still see those noisy bits in the recorded audio file.

How bad it is, how much dbfs? Anyway - use Gate.
My Nord is bit newer (2x) with a slightly improved DA convertor. Noise around -90dbfs.

Check that your cables are good, and not too long.

And as mentioned above, this is a line input instrument, doesn't need a preamp.

[thecontrolcentre]

Using balanced cables can help reduce noise ...

[vurt]

some noise is inherent in audio connections.
how much is there? is the question

[vurt]

and yup tcc snuck in with the balanced cables, this can help some too.

[OUNULK]

I'm confused. I thought the outs of the Nord Lead were "unbalanced"? I can still use balanced cables in this case, or was my assumption wrong?

[thecontrolcentre]

https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sites/def ... 20v1.0.pdf

This recommends you use screened cables ...