DESCRIPTION:
The biggest trap in using a DAW that lies in wait for those of us who grew up recording in an analogue world of tape machines and VU meters is the issue of levels. When I started recording, you wanted to get the best signal to tape you could, bouncing that VU meter as close to 0 as you dared to keep your signal-to-noise ratio as good as it could be. Switching to a digital meter measuring from minus infinity to 0dBFS, no difference, record as close to 0 as you can without clipping, right? Wrong. In this video, I look at where 0VU on my tape machines actually sits on my DAW channel meter, and look at what level we should be recording at.