Tracking out via stereo outs (levels)

yo fam,so i've been stressing/searching the past couple days with tracking out.

MPC (Left) -> Apogee Duet 2 (Input 1) -> Logic 8 (Track 1, mono panned hard left)
MPC (Right) -> Apogee Duet 2 (Input 2) -> Logic 8 (Track 2, mono panned hard right)

when i arm to record and hit play on the mpc, what levels should i be seeing in the track meter?

Instead of recording two tracks, you could also simply record one stereo track in logic. But whatever works for you..

If you don't do anything with the recorded product, just make sure it is never clipping (hitting 0db in logic). If you want to apply stuff like EQ, comp, limiter, etc... make sure you leave some headroom (not sure what's a good formula here, i keep it well below -3db if i do that, then again, i don't do much after recording into logic, since it's usually the finished beat i'm recording which is already EQ'd, compressed and "mastered").

Peace!

jibber wrote:Instead of recording two tracks, you could also simply record one stereo track in logic. But whatever works for you..

If you don't do anything with the recorded product, just make sure it is never clipping (hitting 0db in logic). If you want to apply stuff like EQ, comp, limiter, etc... make sure you leave some headroom (not sure what's a good formula here, i keep it well below -3db if i do that, then again, i don't do much after recording into logic, since it's usually the finished beat i'm recording which is already EQ'd, compressed and "mastered").

Peace!

Yeah jibb, i am in the samenworkflow as you. I have everything mixed, eq'd, and sounding the way i want to coming out of the mpc. I am using logic to record my finished product. In this case as mentioned above, do you keep the track faders on 0.0 db and then try to record in the hottest level without clipping?
Thanks for the patience

jibber wrote:Instead of recording two tracks, you could also simply record one stereo track in logic. But whatever works for you..

If you don't do anything with the recorded product, just make sure it is never clipping (hitting 0db in logic). If you want to apply stuff like EQ, comp, limiter, etc... make sure you leave some headroom (not sure what's a good formula here, i keep it well below -3db if i do that, then again, i don't do much after recording into logic, since it's usually the finished beat i'm recording which is already EQ'd, compressed and "mastered").

Peace!

I tracked out some stuff to be mixed for an EP I'm doing, and the engineer liked it between -6db to -10db....in his words, "let me make it loud, you just make sure it doesn't clip and give me plenty of headroom" so take my advice for what it's worth (not much...haha).

tunnelno5 wrote:

jibber wrote:Instead of recording two tracks, you could also simply record one stereo track in logic. But whatever works for you..

If you don't do anything with the recorded product, just make sure it is never clipping (hitting 0db in logic). If you want to apply stuff like EQ, comp, limiter, etc... make sure you leave some headroom (not sure what's a good formula here, i keep it well below -3db if i do that, then again, i don't do much after recording into logic, since it's usually the finished beat i'm recording which is already EQ'd, compressed and "mastered").

Peace!

Yeah jibb, i am in the samenworkflow as you. I have everything mixed, eq'd, and sounding the way i want to coming out of the mpc. I am using logic to record my finished product. In this case as mentioned above, do you keep the track faders on 0.0 db and then try to record in the hottest level without clipping?
Thanks for the patience

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm in Nashville and a lot of my friends are engineers here. They actually preach the opposite, you do NOT want to record hot. Mastering will make your tracks loud (if you are doing it yourself, something like Izotope Ozone), give the engineer and mastering engineer plenty of room to work with, at least that's what they have told me everytime I sent them something at max level.

i found that my mix sounds best and easiest to work with at around -5db to -6db. i guess that is what they mean by "headroom."

as stated, i have things how i want sounding out of the mpc, but leaving headroom when recording into the daw really gives me flexibility in the little mixing i have to do, for example mixing my scratching over the 2 track beat.

is it possible to get my tracks to sound bigger? like i stated, the mix sounds good, but i have to crank it up high in the car. i know this is what people who master do, but can a bedroom producer like me imitate whatever process? what i have been doing as of now is adding an adaptive limiter to the master and playing with the gain till the master level meter is barely hitting zero. still a quiet mix though..

tunnelno5 wrote:i found that my mix sounds best and easiest to work with at around -5db to -6db. i guess that is what they mean by "headroom."

as stated, i have things how i want sounding out of the mpc, but leaving headroom when recording into the daw really gives me flexibility in the little mixing i have to do, for example mixing my scratching over the 2 track beat.

is it possible to get my tracks to sound bigger? like i stated, the mix sounds good, but i have to crank it up high in the car. i know this is what people who master do, but can a bedroom producer like me imitate whatever process? what i have been doing as of now is adding an adaptive limiter to the master and playing with the gain till the master level meter is barely hitting zero. still a quiet mix though..

Sure. Izotope Ozone is a mastering plugin with a "loudness maximizer"(basically a stereo out compressor that brings the levels up to speed). Turn the loudness maximizer on and mess with the threshold and other settings. Look up other mastering plugins that can do the same thing. Ozone usually gets nothing but good reviews, though.