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Quick Tip: Getting A Decent Audio Signal

February 16, 2007 | Author: Joel Falconer | Filed under: ,

A guitar-playing friend of mine is dabbling in the art of recording and asked me a question about getting a decent signal. He was going through his computer’s built in line-in and could only get a very small signal that sounded quiet and weak, and if he tried to fix this he got a clipped and distorted signal.

I don’t pretend to be a recording expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s important to get the signal right. It’s possible to do directly with the line-in in your computer (my friend didn’t know that input volumes could be adjusted under Windows XP just like output volumes), but I recommend to anyone who is even half-serious about home recording to at least get a pre-amp. Better yet, get a fairly cheap Behringer Eurorack–you can get them with two phantom-powered microphone/analogue inputs and built-in pre-amps for about AU$100, so it would be well below the $100 mark in American dollars.

From there, all you have to do is turn up the volume, make sure it’s loud enough, and bring it down (or up) enough until the red “Peak” LED stops blinking when you play. Check that you’re getting a similar signal in your computer’s digital audio workstation–loud enough, but the signal metre isn’t hitting red. You’ll have a clear signal with no clipping.

For XP users with no pre-amp or mixer, skip to measuring volume directly in the DAW. For us lucky Mac OS X users (and if you’re really serious about recording, I recommend you become one) you don’t even need a DAW. The input volume settings provide a signal metre.

Midnight.Haulkerton is recording on a very tight budget, so over the last six months that we’ve been really actively recording, we’ve had to figure out how to get a decent sound from cheap equipment. I’d say that getting a decent signal before you hit ‘Record’ is one of those things. This applies to recording on any budget, of course.

Nothing beats a decent digital input to get great sound quality, if you have the extra money!

If you have a suggestion for improving my technique, let me know in the comments. If you want to receive more recording techniques like this and news and updates about the band, feel free to subscribe to our mailing list. It’s a low-volume list and we don’t include ads or sell your address, ever:

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Alfadir's Piercing is the blog of Australian grok rock band Midnight.Haulkerton, bringing you free songs, tips and guides for songwriters, musicians and band leaders, and Midnight.Haulkerton news.

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