CLIPPING FX LEVELS

[Kojak]

Hi! I've been away from music making for quite some time now. (As you can see from my profile details, I'm still soldiering on with a Mac Pro 3,1 running Logic 9.1.8). It's been such a while since I fired this up that I'm hoping you (far more!) knowledgeable folks might be able to help me out here and help refresh my memory as to how to get back up and running as I appear to be struggling with some weird sort of 'recording brain fog' just trying to get back into this. My main issue?

 

I'm struggling with my levels! I've attached some screenshots to try to visually explain my dilemma. In a nut shell: I'm recording into my interface with levels that, at their 'peak', are coming into my Logic DAW at around -10dB. Now I realise that a lot of you pro's prefer to build their channel plug-ins from the ground up depending on the source material but I admit to not being very technical in this area and I do actually like the sound of certain stock preset plug-in chains in Logic. For my lead vocals I particularly like: 'Male Creamy Lead Vocal' which, from what I remember at least, seems very suited to my dulcit tones and for DI'd electric guitar sounds I like: Logic's 'Clean Echoes' preset for rhythm/arpeggio work and use the 'Garage Rock' preset for overdrive parts and 'Glam Rock' for lead playing ... or I used to without too much bother! As I say, I haven't been making music for some considrable time but, coming back to this, I'm now finding that I'm struggling to control my levels ... and I can't really work out why!

 

When I apply any of my 'go to' presets to my -10dB dry recordings the presets I've happily used in the past now just seem to bump each track up in volume close to clipping (which accumulatively end up taking the Master Channel into the red the more tracks I add). I've just re-read Lagerfeldt's essay here but I'm just not clicking with it here and can't work out what I'm doing wrong for the life of me. Like I say, I appear to be suffering with a bad bout of brain fog of late so would be extremely grateful if some kind and knowledgable soul out there could take the time to look at my attached screenshots here and try to explain to me (ideally in the simplest of terms!) what it is I'm doing wrong here. After an overly long lay off I would now love to get back into all this but all I've managed to achieve so far since firing up my old system is to get clean signals into my DAW but then spend the rest of the time just fighting with levels this end. So far it's not been the creative journey I was hoping to pick up with after a long non-musical hiatus.

 

Any ideas to help get me off the blocks here? Could it perhaps be something to do with pre OR post fader metering? I dunno, I'm just stabbing in the dark here!

 

Many thanks in advance for any insights!

DI'd 'CLEAN EGTR' w FX chain preset [Peak level: -0.6dB]

Un-effected DRY DI'd 'O/D EGTR' [Peak level: -10dB]

DI'd 'O/D EGTR' w FX chain preset applied [Peak level: -0.6dB]

Un-effected DRY DI'd 'CLEAN EGTR' [Peak level: -10dB]

Un-effected DRY VOX [Peak level: -10dB]

VOX w FX chain preset applied [Peak level: -2.9dB]

[des99]

Try turning off Auto Gain on your compressor, as that will be bumping up its output level.

 

Also your Amp Designer is adding 8dB of gain but only compensating by -2dB at its output. You just need to see what’s adding level and back it off to compensate really, nothing more complicated than that.

 

Note that none of those channels “clip”, Logic has internal headroom to cope easily. As long as your master bus is not clipping, there’s no problem, as such.

[Kojak]

Thanks so much des99!

[des99]

You’re welcome!