I am using 2 Hughes & Kettner GD40 guitar amps to record 2 guitar tracks.
These amps have a DI output, but the level of this DI depends on each amp output volume which can only be adjusted by the amp volume button.
When I no more need these amps, I disconnect the Cubase monitors, then bring back the amp volume to zero and switch each amp off.
Each DI output goes into a Focusrite 18i20 3rd Instrument input, the 18i20 being connected to a PC where Cubase is running.
The problem : I can’t find a way to recover same Cubase input level between recording sessions, even if I don’t move the 18i20 gain, the precision of the H&K D40 volume level is not easy to adjust, by hand and looking to input track graphic gauge level in Cubase mixer, to the the value it had on previous session.
Is there in Cubase a process to reach more accurately, with numbers, the previous input level all things equal otherwise ?
EDIT : I do not want to change the guitar input track level in Cubase but use each amp level button, seeing the result in Cubase.
Unless you change the level of the input channels Cubase just records the data it gets from the audio device. And if the level of the DI out really depends on the amp volume , there is not much Cubase can do about that. Maybe you can paint a little marker dot on the amp volume pot where you think the best setting is.
Yes that was my first thinking, but in next I say myself “Cubase has certainly an idea of this input level, some number it uses to display the level as a graphic ?”.
All this considering I pick with the same energy one of the guitar strings .
Cubase uses the data it gets from the audio interface driver, a sequence of samples with (usually) 24bit per sample indicating the “level” of the sample. Nothing more.
You can change that manually with the fader on each input channel, but that’s about all. Cubase cannot set the amp volume for you.
Sorry but you don’t understand my question.
I am certainly not asking Cubase to set the amp volume… and I know the tech details of audio recording.
Thanks but…
I record in 32 bit. I realise that I do not have a soundcard that can utilise this. However the advantage of working in 32bit is that you have almost no limit to how much you can adjust the volume level with no repercussions in the signal quality. I use a preamp plugin (in my case a UAD Neve 1073 Preamp) on the input channel and use this to adjust the signal level to the optimum for recording on to the chosen track. The clip volume adjustment can also be used. Obviously you have to do this for each channel if you are recording on more than one track.
You can use a leveler plugin with long release and look-ahead on the input channel so the recorded audio is already leveled. Cubase currently has no Leveler.
Or, simply normalize the Event so it matches the other ones ? This only takes a few seconds.
It looks to be a solution, I temporarly add it in the input channel to adjust my amp level then bypass it for recording. Could be nice to have one able to remember the max level, have you any recommandation ?
I am not sure it would be so easy with guitar sessions fragmented between various amp channel ?
Normalize by using the recording session track level ? It implies many work, may be rendering in another audio file, if I want to be able to have a standard level for guitars and be able to play with xfade and level.
What ? What are you aiming to do exactly ? You don’t have to disable the leveler, since you want to record the DI at proper level. If you bypass the plugin you’ll lose all the benefit of it, I don’t really understand your answer.
No, normalize to the same level of a track that is having the right level already.
If the other track peaks at -10, then normalize your track at -10 so they both have the same level, there’s no complicated work and rendering involved…
Pop on instance of Supervision on your “Mono In” track. Set it to show a VU meter. Change the settings so it shows VU dbFS, and then adjust the offset to whatever you like (i.e. -18 or -20).
This will give you a good visual indicator of level going into Cubase if you aim to get the needle hovering around the 0db mark each time you record a track. Plus Supervision is resizeable so can be seen from a fair distance if needs be.
If you don’t have Supervision, any other VU meter will do the trick.
Couldn’t you just switch OFF the Focusrite interface to “no Audio output” and leave everything as it was with “Audio output ON”?
Or you connect cubase to Audio out 7+8 and switch them OFF if you don’t need any guitar amp recording and the Focusrite needs a working Audio out to 1+2, but this would be very unusual.
With 7+8 for amp recording you could use the Focusrite with 6 independent Audio Channels for whatever you want to record and you could leave 7+8 for amp recording