mixer help

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:38 pm

could someone advise me about my mixer?
i got a few questions

what exactly does the gain do?

ok, guess its just one for now

everydayDMBfan_18 · Post by **everydayDMBfan_18** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 9:06 pm

Go with a decent priced Mackie!!

Gain, the name says what does...the higher you turn the gain the more distortion you get.

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:08 pm

i already have one thanks

so it does the same thing as a distortion pedal?
and for a normal clean sound you would have it all the way down?
and what do the number markers on it mean?

RSabala · Post by **RSabala** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 10:28 pm

The gain/trim has nothing to do with "good" distortion. Do this.....set your fader (the one that slides up and down) to 0dB. Then, monitoring the level, use your gain to control the input signal. If your gain/trim is too low, you'll have a lot of noise. If it's too high, you'll get clipping/distortion.

Feel free to ask more mixer related questions.

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:22 am

RSabala wrote:The gain/trim has nothing to do with "good" distortion. Do this.....set your fader (the one that slides up and down) to 0dB. Then, monitoring the level, use your gain to control the input signal. If your gain/trim is too low, you'll have a lot of noise. If it's too high, you'll get clipping/distortion.

Feel free to ask more mixer related questions.

THANK YOU!!!

so what is the volume used for then? (im assuming you meant set the master and individual channel volumes at 0..)
and what if i need it so loud that it becomes too distorted because of the gain?

thanks again

RSabala · Post by **RSabala** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:29 am

so what is the volume used for then? (im assuming you meant set the master and individual channel volumes at 0..)
and what if i need it so loud that it becomes too distorted because of the gain?

I'm not sure why you would need it "so loud" that it would become distorted. The basic thing that you need to remember for now is that if it moves "up and down", set it to zero. This includes the master faders and the channel faders. Then, adjust your gain/trim (knob, most likely) to get a good level. If you're recording into a computer program, you monitor the little colored bars that are moving around. You want the loudest part of your song to have levels that reach just into the yellow. If it goes into the red, you'll have distortion and clipping and that's just bad sound.

This technique is used to get good signal to noise ratio. By making certain adjustments, you can minimize the noise (hiss, etc.) and have good quality recordings. If you need to make it louder, you can always do that later with software.

I'm not really sure of your setup, so I'm just throwing out general advice. If you were more specific, I could try and tailor the questions specifically to the problems.

Keep them coming!

NPR · Post by **NPR** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 9:44 am

Hey RSabala that is some good info. When I get home I am gonna have to look at my mixer and then ask you some questions. I have a mixer now and I am never sure what setting to use when I record into my computer.

RSabala · Post by **RSabala** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 10:20 am

No problem. I have a few good books I can look into as well. Just don't ask me anything about setting a compressor. I always have to have my little brother (audio production major) come over and tweak my compressor. Someday I'll pay attention......

NPR · Post by **NPR** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 10:24 am

Yeah I got a couple of books as well. I have been trying to read through them. One day I will know what I am doing.

What books do you have?

RSabala · Post by **RSabala** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:13 am

I don't have them in front of me, but I think one is called "The Musician's Guide to Home Recording". It's a little dated, as it basically focuses on tape recording and treats digital recording as a look to the future. It has real good advice about mic placement, eq, etc. I can't think of the other off hand though. I borrow a few from my brother too.

NPR · Post by **NPR** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:35 am

Yeah I got Home Recording Power by Ben Milstead and the Dummies one. The one by Milstead is pretty good it is the 2nd edition and had been updated for digital recording so it is almost exactly what I need to be reading. You should check it out.

thejoe · Post by **thejoe** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 6:26 pm

RSabala wrote:
I'm not really sure of your setup, so I'm just throwing out general advice. If you were more specific, I could try and tailor the questions specifically to the problems.

Keep them coming!

thanks!!

i have a behringer ub1202
connected to a fairly old gateway with cool edit pro

i havent been recording much, but i definetly will soon

no more questions right now, but there will be within the next few days

thanks