# How loud should a guitar d.i. signal be?



## thevisi0nary (Sep 16, 2013)

Im recording dry tracks to bring to a studio, is there any reference someone can give me for how loud they should be?


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## Winspear (Sep 17, 2013)

Peaking around -6 to -4 dB when picking as hard as physically possible, ideally.


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## Lach Rae Dawn (Sep 17, 2013)

EtherealEntity said:


> Peaking around -6 to -4 dB when picking as hard as physically possible, ideally.




so -10 to -8 dB should be when not picking as hard as possible?


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## tedtan (Sep 17, 2013)

^

The idea is to allow for some extra headroom in case you pick harder than you planned to while recording. So set up your input gain so that the highest your DI signal peaks is around -6dB when you are picking as hard as you can/think you will while tracking and then start recording playing how you normally play. This will probably leave your average/RMS (NOTE: average, not peak) level somewhere between -20dB and -15dB and the peaks somewhere between -12 and -6. Anywhere in this general area is good.


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## Lach Rae Dawn (Sep 17, 2013)

tedtan said:


> ^
> 
> The idea is to allow for some extra headroom in case you pick harder than you planned to while recording. So set up your input gain so that the highest your DI signal peaks is around -6dB when you are picking as hard as you can/think you will while tracking and then start recording playing how you normally play. This will probably leave your average/RMS (NOTE: average, not peak) level somewhere between -20dB and -15dB and the peaks somewhere between -12 and -6. Anywhere in this general area is good.



Ok cool, so I am doing it somewhere in the ball park.. (I thought maybe I was recording them too low volume)

I understand the headroom aspect. I make sure the peaks of my guitar recordings (DI) always have several dB of headroom for re-amping, and FX.


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## Alphanumeric (Sep 17, 2013)

Peak no higher than -3 to -6db and an RMS of -18 to -12


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## rectifryer (Sep 17, 2013)

Whats the scope of the rms calculation? 5msecs or longer? I am assuming we are talking in seconds.


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## Estock (Sep 17, 2013)

I try to keep peak between -12 and -14, depending on how your interface/converter is calibrated. For instance, a Universal Audio Apollo is calibrated at -18dBfs, meaning -18 in your DAW is 0 dBU in the analog world. If you're concerned about using outboard gear at all, I'd be sure to check your calibration.


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## vansinn (Sep 17, 2013)

Check this resent thread http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/re...ls-considerations-gain-staging-mastering.html


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## Winspear (Sep 18, 2013)

Lach Rae Dawn said:


> Ok cool, so I am doing it somewhere in the ball park.. (I thought maybe I was recording them too low volume)
> 
> I understand the headroom aspect. I make sure the peaks of my guitar recordings (DI) always have several dB of headroom for re-amping, and FX.



 It's very normal to barely see the waveform on guitar DI's.


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## Estock (Sep 18, 2013)

vansinn said:


> Check this resent thread http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/re...ls-considerations-gain-staging-mastering.html



Good stuff!


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