Master volume/internal recording

hello,

When i am exporting songs from my MPC > Mac, i record each track internally as a WAV and then transfer by USB (quite a long way to go about this but it works for me).

Generally i have my Master volume set at -12 or sometime -6, however before i internally record my tracks in the MPC i change the Master volume to 0.

This has generally worked fine in the past but when i did it recently with a base heavy track, the exported WAV was very distorted..

Should I keep the master volume at -12 when exporting or should i change to -0 and try to reduce the distortion in the DAW? Or perhaps it is just this one sample that is distorted and need to be re recorded..

Sorry if i am not explaining it very well, thanks in advance

Short answer, set it wherever you don't get clipping/distortion.


Long answer...

If you have a sample, that peaks just below full level, and you play that single sample at full velocity, on the 0dB setting master volume setting, it should result in an output that also peaks just below full level.

Once you start adding other samples, playing at the same time as that just below full level sample at full velocity, then it will add to it, and start to clip, it will hit full level.

That is what the master volume setting is there for.

It is hard to say what the best setting is, as it depends on the level of the samples you are playing, the velocity they are playing at, and how many are playing at once.

Just drop the master level until it is not clipping, so that the resulting full mixed file is peaking just below full level.

You probably want the resulting full mixed file to be peaking somewhere near, but below full level.

It can also depend on whether you plan to do any processing to the file afterwards, or if you want to use it as is, and have it as loud as possible without clipping.

Thanks Simon, appreciate the helpful response

Yeah i think for this beat i will lower the Master volume to -6 and then put it into logic and then just see what works best

I usually use this process to bounce individual tracks/stems .. but this time i had converted 4 tracks to a song, so i guess like you say that might of effected it..

while im here.. i bounce my tracks to logic this way for a few reasons:
-i used to have a ground loop problem and have only recently found an isolator that works
-im sure i have been told that because you are converting the sound internally to a wav on the mpc, you can avoid losing some of the sound quality..?
-its a method that works well for me, can be a bit drawn out sometimes tho

cheers