M-Audio Dman PCI [26/29] Digital recording dos and don ts

tion. The higher the resolution, the better the sound quality. Select 16-bit for

higher quality recording. Recording in 8-bit format can sometimes cause dis-

tortion, or a hissing sound, during playback.

Digital Recording Dos and Don’ts

In the digital realm, level meters are not meant to ever go into the red. Digital

recording is very unforgiving of clipping. Unlike analog systems, where tape

saturation gives a nice smooth compression, digital distortion sounds like

someone is breaking a pane of glass in your ear. Make sure that you give your-

self lots of headroom both when recording and mixing. You’ve got all that

dynamic range – now use it!

Measure twice, cut once. Take your time to make sure that mic position, EQ,

and effects settings are exactly what you want when tracking. With digital

audio “Fix it in the mix” hardly ever works.

Know your signal chain. Some programs set the levels internally, others use

the Windows level controls. Make sure you know which is which. If you are

not getting the levels you expect, retrace your signal chain and make sure that

you are adjusting levels in the correct places. Some programs also add digital

effects to your output. If you hear something that you don’t think you put

there, check around for DirectX effects!

PLEASE NOTE: Just like a professional analog tape deck, the DMAN PCI is

expecting a line level signal. A microphone preamp or mixing console may

be needed to boost the signal you are trying to record to that of “line level.”

No microphone input has been included on the DMAN PCI since onboard

mic inputs offer compromised quality.

Plan ahead. Think about tracking ahead of time and decide in what order you

are going to record the tracks. Keep a track list. Use it to make notes when you

are recording (where you might need to punch in and out, etc.). With hard

disk recording you don’t have to worry about the bass track bleeding into the

vocal track or whether the heads have the same response on different tracks,

but you still want to have a plan.

Back up your work. Sure, most editing functions with HDR (hard disk record-

ing) systems are non-destructive, but some are not. If you are doing a lot of

editing (or even if you’re not, but don’t want to take any chances), back up

your audio tracks. Audio takes up a lot of disk space, so you might want to

have a large format removable drive (Iomega Zip or Jaz, Syquest EZ Flyer or

CD-ROM for example) on which to store audio files.

Optimize your hard disk often. Fragmented audio files are inefficient and

often cause problems with writeable audio programs.