recording very dynamic stuff

[agarlan]

I am recording a really intense song with extreme louds and very delicate sections. How can I record the drums so my levels will be strong during quiet parts and limited during loud parts. I assume I want the signal going into the computer to be strong, so does that mean I need to use an outboard compressor/limiter to boost quiet and limit loudness as it goes into the layla? Or can I do all this after the initial recording. I am concerned about doing it post-recording because I don't want to introduce noise or crap by boosting a really weak signal. Any advice? Anything that samplitude can do? Plugins? I have a bunch of plugin compressors, but nothing outboard.

[Robert D]

I think the concept to keep in mind here is that Samplitude isn't going to introduce any noise to the recording as a hardware mixer would, it will only raise whatever noise you record as you raise the weak signal. So with that in mind, then you have to consider what are the noise sources? If you're going mic to pre to converter to Samp then it's Room Noise + any Amplifier Noise (guitar amp, bass amp) + Microphone Self Noise + Preamp Self Noise + Converter Self Noise. I'm assuming that the Mic, Pre, and Converter self noise are not an issue, given proper placement and gain staging. So then there's room and amp noise. Since thay are acoustical noise, any compression/limiting you do will only raise and limit their level in the same ratio as the desired source. So, there's no benefit there. Actually, if the compressor is after the pre, then the same is true for mic and pre self noise.
If the song is mostly quiet, with some short loud parts, then it would make sense to do some compressing/limiting in the recording chain to have good bit resolution for the majority quiet part. But if it's the other way around I'd be hesitant to squash the recording during tracking. In either case, a little experimentation is a good idea.
Hope that helps, RD

[agarlan]

Thanks for the advice. The song is pretty much half and half quiet and loud, with everything in between. Very classical, in that sense. There really isn't any noticeable noise - my mic is wonderful, and so are the pres and the layla. I guess I was just worried about bit resolution (I think?) and boosting such a low signal. But hey, I'll let my ears be the judge and I'll experiment a bit. Thanks