Cubase recording. Dumb question I guess:)

[classic]

Hiy there.

I am not someone who records his own voice.
But now and then friends say, I have a nice voice to sing or just record me, reading a book.

Well, they are very friendly friends:)
But anyway.
My question is.
When recording in cubase, where do I have to put a compressor, to rule my voice a little regarding clipping.
Into the insert chanal ?
Regarding signal flow, does it come bevor my voice goes on the track?
I have no idea.

Thanks a lot:)

[mothra]

Is the track already recorded? If so then yes, you would put a compressor on an insert usually, or you could put one on a send for parallel processing.

If you want to stop it during recording, you need a hardware compressor and the mic needs to be going through this and THEN into the computer. Plugins inside the DAW wont affect anything until the audio is already recorded.

[Weasel-Boy]

You don't need an external processor to do this in Cubase.

If you want to record with a Compressor or Limiter (or anything else, for that matter), you can insert a plug-in on the Input channel(s) of Cubase. Your recording will reflect whatever the plug-in did to your signal permanently, once recorded. To hear the result live, you need to activate the Monitor button on the target Audio Track.

[sin night]

First of all, you need to set the microphone gain appropriately, so the input level is high enough but not enough to clip the input of your audio interface.

Inside Cubase, you can add a compressor/limiter as an insert on the audio track where you're recording and then export the result (record clean, render through processors) or you can insert a processor on the input channels and record with the effects (but, by doing so, there's no way to make adjustments after you have recorded the audio part).
But if you clip your audio interface's A/D converters, none of those things will be of any help (and the daw won't matter either).

[CrystalWizard]

Just be sure you are recording to 24 bit. This way you can keep the recording level low and still have good (enough) quality. If you are recording someone who alternately yells and then whispers, then, you may want an external compressor. It's recommended to record clean, adding fx as inserts or sends.

edit: not a dumb question but you should probably change the spelling in the title

[jens]

You don't need an external processor to do this in Cubase.

Yes, you do. Only a compressor that sits before the ADC will be able to help preventing it from clipping.

[Weasel-Boy]

You don't need an external processor to do this in Cubase.

Yes, you do. Only a compressor that sits before the ADC will be able to help preventing it from clipping.

This is true.

[classic]

Thank you all a lot:)
I thought I need an external compressor to get the task done.
Thanks again:)

[sin night]

Just to make it clear: usually you can't connect a microphone directly to an hardware compressor, you need to amplify the signal coming from the microphone first. So you'd need a preamp, then a compressor and finally the signal can go into a (line) input of your audio interface. Or you can get a channel strip combining a preamp and a compressor (and maybe also an eq) into a single unit...


Before spending money on hardware, you should try to decrease the gain of your microphone input first. It's not a problem if you record a little bit lower (as long as it's not too low, of course!)... then you can apply a bit of compression using a plugin and, once the dynamics are more even / you have taken care of occasional peaks, you can raise the level of the overall recording.
Also, by working this way, you can apply some noise removal / ambience removal (or other similar processings) before compression (in case you need it, of course).


Another thing to consider (I didn't hear any of your recordings so I don't know if this applies to you) is your microphone technique:
- what kind of microphone (dynamic, condenser... maybe also the exact model) are you using?
- how much close is the microphone to your mouth? how is it placed?
- those clippings happen when you make an explosive sound (like pronouncing a "b" or a "p")? are you using a pop filter?


If we are talking about clipping/distortion, I would start from these things before spending money on hardware. Don't get me wrong, I love hardware, but I would work on the possible causes of the distortion/clipping first.
The result can be achieved by decreasing the overall amplitude (what I'm suggesting here regarding the microphone input gain), by decreasing the amplitude of the strongest parts so they are not as loud (by using a compressor to reduce the dynamics) and by avoiding/containing the loudest peaks at the source (aka "microphone technique"). Two of them are free (or almost free, in case you need a pop filter).


Using a hardware preamp and compressor before the input of your audio interface is an option, but it's more expensive... and also, you'll probably want to compress lightly at that stage anyway, in order to keep some margin for later work on the recorded material...

[sin night]

I forgot to mention: another reason why I'm not a fan of using a compressor while recording is de-essing: I think it's easier to detect those unwanted sibilants if their are louder than the sounds nearby, so it's easier for a de-essing tool (a traditional de-esser, a dynamic eq or some modern restoration tool) to do it's job properly.
By using compression before any of those tools, you're reducing the level of those sibilant peak, so they are detect for amplitude-based tools.

That's an example of what I had on my head when I wrote the sentence "[...]in order to keep some margin for later work on the recorded material[...]"