Yeah... looking at the vocal wave, it looks pretty anemic. Very similar to mine back in the early days.

Just out of curiosity.... ignore the clip lights and the red lines and all the other stuff that tells you that you are over the limits..... psssst.... don't tell anybody.... but I don't look at the lights and meters very much on the recording side of things but instead, prefer to use them more on playback as opposed to setting recording levels using them. that doesn't mean I ignore them totally, but I don't rely 100% on them for recording levels.

Simply record the track with the levels turned up. Set as the goal to get a larger wave form into the track regardless of anything else. Remember that with the DAW, you can always delete disasters and start over. Start from where you are and turn it up a few db.... look at the wave.....listen to it...... increase it again.... look at it.....listen to it..... keep doing that until you get the wave nicely filling the track view...AND.... where it still sounds completely normal.

LISTEN to the playback. Are there any artifacts of digital clipping? They're generally pretty easy to hear. Are there any "overs" in the wave? Are there any "flat tops" in the wave? If so... you've gone too far...back off.

READ THIS>>>>>> http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep13/articles/level-headed.htm

Experiment and learn what it takes to get nice, unclipped, full looking, and sweet sounding waves. And... remember, it's not about the way it looks.... you want the big fat waves because the signal to noise ratio is better. The big fat wave in track view simply confirms that you have a good solid signal. If you have to turn up that anemic vocal to fit the mix, you also increase any noise in that track. That's not good.

Keep working.... and let us know how this turns out.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 03/14/15 03:51 AM.
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