Topic: clipping when limiting a 24/96 recording?

[twoheadedboy]

I recently upgraded from an R-09 to a PCM-M10 for taping, and with it my default format from 24/44.1 to 24/96. I tape a lot of club and small theater rock shows, and even with the bass roll-off utilized I find it necessary to use EQ and/or compression to tame the bass when editing for listening purposes these days. I of course tape line in, low sensitivity, no auto-levels or anything else. I usually have the preamp set at +10dB but the clipping indicator came on during the opening act so I cut it back down to 0 (which still has an inherent +24dB gain). The clipping light never came on after this. I had the levels set between 4 and 5, and the green lights on the deck were mostly constant, sometimes dropping off, indicating that I had levels peaking around -12dB. The resulting recording has no clipping. Using Adobe Audition 1.5 I adjust the recording as I see fit and this brings the peaks down to about -18dB, everything sounds great, just quiet. I normalize the recording to -1dB, the last step BEFORE converting to 16/44.1...and now I can hear a significant amount of clipping. Where did I go wrong, because again, there was no recording before normalizing, and according to the visuals the recording is not even approaching 0dB or above.

Thanks for any help you can provide...

[twoheadedboy]

Never mind. I'm not having the problem today, which leads me to believe it's actually an issue with my soundcard's headphone jack dying.

Carry on...

[Shadow_7]

It depends on what you're calling clipping.  24dB is a lot of gain to be adding in post.  If I'm adding 10dB or more without limiting the peaks, I know that I didn't set the levels right at the point of capture.  At 24dB you are likely to have some dynamic range issues.  i.e. soft sounds just not there, where had the levels been optimal, there would be that guy yelling yo adrian in the recording.  Not normally an issue with most content but if you have a flute solo in a 100 piece orchestra, it can be.

Headphone jacks are prone to be bumped and have their solder crack.  Most times you can gain access internally and re-solder, but almost always easier said than done.  I tend to run my headphones out of a headphone preamp with extension cables and adapters.  Keeps things safe and out of the way.  And with a decent interface you can swap cables and stuff pretty quick to listen on the good stuff.  Not for everyone, but headphone preamps are dirt cheap relative to almost all other parts of a quality recording chain.  Costing less than most mics in a lot of cases.  Long gone are the days of 4 or 8 Ohms headsets.  32+ Ohms require a little more umphh to make a set of cans sing.  Plus having knobs that you can play with fast instead of trying the find the software equivalent is a bonus.

[twoheadedboy]

No the 24dB gain is in the preamp.

[Shadow_7]

No the 24dB gain is in the preamp.

That's good to know.  I'm generally on the first three clicks of my preamp.  0 / 18 / 28 with 18 being the most common one to be at.  Depending mainly on the venue (walls / reflections) and distance from the loud group.  That distance one can be a wildcard a lot of time.  But I generally do stadium-ish type venues, so that distance could be the equivalent of a football field, literally.  At which points levels are limited by the distractions next to me and not the content on/near the field.