SX2 32/96. huge signal ... tape compression???

[fishybob]

Hi, I'm new to these parts although I've been a member of other forums for a while.

I have a question about SX2.

If a project is recorded and mixed at 32/96 with good high sgnal level on each track, what happens to the signal of the fader is pushed way up to the top on every track? The master bus is set really low to stop it from clipping, however none of the individual tracks appear to be clipping either. Is there an element of tape compression added? Or is it just an example of the high headroom??



*** this is a very old project with too much automation to adjust it all to check.

[C00kie]

There is no tape-like compression in Cubase if you did not add that to the master fx slot.

The 32bits floating point data format allows ridiculous amounts of headroom, so you can set channel faders way into red and compensate that with setting the master fader very low.

It will sound the very same if you set channel faders back and raise the master fader again.

[bduffy]

Yep to what C00kie said except I thought it's always good practice to keep your Master Bus at parity. I don't see any benefit to recording your tracks super hot, without any analog colour, just because you can. Don't you want dynamics?

[fishybob]

Thanks for that guys.

I agree and have kept the faders low for all my recent projects. This one was just massive, with automation flying everywhere. The idea of having to do it all again was terrifying.

Nice... I can get one with small tweeks now then.

Cheers

[annode]

Look at it this way;
You can make a bit rate analogy with keyboard velocity...the higher you set each,the greater divisions of sound levels become possible.
If a sound is recorded that equals 0db...the bit rate is insignificant.
If a sound has many volume variances in the LOWER volume range,higher bit rates will be able to sample a replay those sublties back.

Higher bit rates have nothing to do with headroom,as far as how loud a sound can be recorded digitally.
Just think about velocity and divisions/layers.

[fishybob]

Thanks for that.


I got home and had a play and it's all sitting together much more smoothly now.

Instead of dealing with the automation I just turned down the last plugin but 5db... problem solved.


*** It sounds awesome after my new tweaks!



Cheers again.