Hi. I’m using Cubase 11 pro and a UR44C interface. I’m confused on waveforms that I think show peaking (and I hear peaking). I’m also confused about a few other waveform things. When I record my Schecter C-1 Platinum guitar with active humbucker pickups, I’ve tried using Hi-z, low-z and line level inputs. I’ve also used a direct box to take my signal down. No matter what I’ve done, the top of my waveforms are flat (peaking?). I hear that’s a bad thing to do when recording and if you send your files to a pro to mix or master, they’re going to be unhappy and limited in what they can do?
I’d really like to understand some things about Cubase’s waveforms.
Here’s an example: I’m using the UR44C hi-z input number 1 and have the gain knob all the way down. I recorded a riff and the waveform looks like this:
Zoomed in more it looks like this:
My input channels look like this:
My DSPMix looks like this:
When I played, channel 1 would light up -60 and -18 but not “over”.
When I listen to the recorded audio with no FX, I do hear peaking. I’m almost always recording a heavily distorted guitar so it hasn’t mattered to me and I sometimes turn up the UR44C’s gain to get extra distortion anyway. I record everything in the box so my only amps I have are the UR44C’s preamp, active guitar pickups and my studio monitors. I thought I would eventually bounce or render my guitar tracks anyway so the raw signal wouldn’t matter, but I did want capability to re-amp at a friend’s studio so I’m concerned with my peaking signal.
I had guitar luthiers set-up my guitar and they didn’t know why I can’t get my signal to Not peak, other than saying the active pickups are really hot and not meant for clean playing. And, they suggested lowering the pickups from the strings might help, but could also cause other issues. I’m not attacking my strings with a ton of force.
My other guitar with passive pickups, doesn’t flatline unless I intentionally overdrive the gain on the UR44C.
So here are the questions:
-Is there something I’m missing where I should be able to get the signal to not peak or, are some guitar’s pickups just “too hot”?
-Does the peaking matter on distorted guitar anyway? I could see it mattering if I was going to re-amp with a non-distorted effect or if editing I was trying to find the transient.
-I’ve noticed the visual waveform’s peaks and valleys don’t go the same distance so, in the zoomed out pic above, there is a flat “center line” of the signal before anything is played, then when something was played, the wave goes much higher than it goes low. When the waves go high, they flatten but when they go low they don’t. What’s happening here?
