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MONTAGE Series Synthesizers
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I am currently working on recording a set of 3 MIDI tracks to an audio track in Cubase 8.5 Pro. These MIDI tracks constitute the "backup band" for a song I'm creating. I've worked out how to do this, but in the process I ran into something I'd like to ask about.
In Montage Settings--Audio I/O, the default for USB Main is +0dB. When I record the audio track with this setting, I get what seem to me to be very low levels in the audio track. To compensate for this, I've been setting USB Main to +12dB. This brings the levels up to what seems to me more like what I would want to see. In the image below, +0dB is on the left, +12dB is on the right.
My thinking is that by boosting the levels in the audio track I'm using more of the available dynamic range and getting better sound quality (i.e. higher resolution) as a result. Am I right in thinking this? Is the +12dB version a better way to go?
Another question is, am I missing something? Is there some other setting I should be using to boost the audio levels instead of USB Main?
I asked my question about quick setup and audio routing because I had run into this, and noticed that every time I picked a different Quick Setup, the USB Main setting was put back to +0dB. I figured out that I could alter Quick Setups 1-3, but was worried that I would lose something that I didn't know how to re-create. Thanks to Bad Mister (yet again, as usual) I now understand what's going on with these Quick Setups and feel confident I can make them do what I need them to.
Posted : 30/07/2016 7:27 pm
You’re very welcome.
Your thinking is spot on. The physics of sound dictate how the level output works. Typically, one sound alone does not (without significant boosting) fill the available headroom. The system is set so that as many as sixteen Parts can be active in a "musical setting" and the levels will reach the rated output. Obviously a single sound, without significant boosting, will not fill the available dynamic range. Parts can be radically boosted when necessary - when you are recording it to a *separate* audio track, for example. Instead of contributing a little to the whole, you are now going to record and optimize the audio level of this one Part separately!
Also affecting your overall level is your musical performance (velocity). And when you are getting serious about this, you have to recognize that the 'velocity' you record has an influence on the overall level of what gets recorded. This velocity performance results in a specific audio record level, you must be aware of and treat/address the two audio responses to get the best results. In other words, knowing the difference between velocity and level... Velocity is musical, level is engineering.
Expect a single Part alone to be less than able to fill the level meter of that audio output without some assistance. You have the audio level amounts for just this reason. When assigning and recording Parts individually as audio expect to adjust the overall output of that Part. Later when you mixdown you will adjust the levels so they all work together.
Seriously, no kidding, this is why it is called Mixdown - when you optimize the level of each Part individually to an audio track, you will, to combine them, have to turn them all down so that the system can accommodate all of them together. Individually you record them so they fill the entire dynamic range, when you need to combine many of them you have to mix their volumes down! Mixdown.
Sound increases logarithmically, not arithmetically, this means that if a Part is playing alone it is a certain loudness, if you were to double the Part exactly it would not double in output level. In fact, it would take 10 duplicates of the original to double the output.
Expect to use the output level boosts for the "Main L&R" and the "USB 1-30", as necessary, to get the the record level you require for each audio track.
Posted : 30/07/2016 10:55 pm
