Sampling & mixer volume

When you're sampling from wax through a mixer, should you get all the samples at the same dB level (indicated by LEDs) when they're recorded into the mpc? ...I'm thinkin it's not, but just thought I'd see what you guys say.

Also, when you're sampling into the mpc via a mixer, should you keep the channel/volume fader on the mixer at full, and use the gain to adjust volume if needed? Or should they both be used together to get the right sound?... If so, how?

(this probably deserves to be in the newbie section)

when you are recording, the fader should stay about 3/4 the way up and this is called "unity gain"... on most mixers there is a mark in this area of the fader...
that way when you are mixing your stuff down you have room either way to work with... if you already have the fader all the way up when recording, you only have room to work with on the lowering side of things...

Word, so volume and gain are two completely different things?

So always leave room for volume to be increased, alright, so how high should the gain be?... Is there like a standard dB level for recording?

"unity gain" refers to your fader... when sampling and stuff, use the gain knob... when mixing, use the fader, which should already be at "unity" there is usually a mark or something on the mixer that represents "unity" its usually about three quarters of the way up, about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10... it just makes it easier to mix down the road... dont always record as high as it goes, cuz then you cant really boost later in the mix... also, when mixing, if you want to boost one channel, it is usually more effective to lower other channels than to turn up the one, because you should have more lower room to work with...

i hope this was informative and that i didnt say anything wrongly...
im still a noob at mixing too...

Peace

fobedafied wrote:"unity gain" refers to your fader... when sampling and stuff, use the gain knob... when mixing, use the fader, which should already be at "unity" there is usually a mark or something on the mixer that represents "unity" its usually about three quarters of the way up, about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10... it just makes it easier to mix down the road... dont always record as high as it goes, cuz then you cant really boost later in the mix... also, when mixing, if you want to boost one channel, it is usually more effective to lower other channels than to turn up the one, because you should have more lower room to work with...

i hope this was informative and that i didnt say anything wrongly...
im still a noob at mixing too...

Peace

It all makes sense to me bro. Some things I knew and some I didn't. But I'm mainly talking about recording/sampling, not mixing. I've been practicing mixing more than usual lately, though, and it's all good shit to know.

But yeah, if anyone can give me a hand, I basically want to know what the output levels should be like on the mixer when I'm sampling into an mpc.

as hot as you can get it without distorting...

usually 0db i think... maybe +3db...

I don't have any experience with digital mixers, but from what I've gathered while trying to figure this out, is that anything above 0db on a digi mixer will clip and sound shit.
I ain't using a digital mixer, though. And actually, the only mixer I am using is a 2 channel dj mixer for sampling into the mpc from my table.

Check this picture of my mixer;



0db is only a bit above half way (indicated by the led indicators)... Would you still say to get my samples hitting the 0db marker and then record into the mpc?

When I'm just listening to records, cutting, or whatever, I normally just settle around the +4db level, but sometimes I'll let the signal reach the +7db / +10db indicators... is this bad?