The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

Well, I Think That It Depends On The Synth And Setup. There Are no Rules,
Just Like In The Kitchen. Just What You Want To Achieve.

First, It's Supposed That The Hotter The Signal, The Better. You Can Lower
that On The Mixer Or On The DAW. Having A Hotter Signal Allows You To
"Minimize" the Noise. This Is The Principle You Should Work On.  Try To
Listen The Sound Of The People Walking While Standing In Front Of The
Speakers In A Dance Club. You Can't, Cause The Signal (Music) to Noise
(Shoes Noise) Ratio Is Very Extreme. So The Idea Is Keep The Difference As
Big As You Can, So The Noise Is Not Listened. (unless You Have A Synth With
Digital Output Or A Softsynth). And When You Mix It, And Lower The Volumes
(On Your Mixer or DAW) You Are Lowering The Noise Too, So The Ratio Keeps
There.

Some Synths Have A Low S/N Ratio, Hence Maxing Its Main Volume Will Max The
Noise. In That Case, Put Your Mixer Fader On 0db And Lower The Volume On
Your Synth Until You Hear No Noise, But The Synth Sounds Level Are Ok. Here
Also The Output Signal Level Of The Synth Plays Great Part. This Way You Can
Reach A Good Level (Like Peaking -6db) Or A Bad One (-30db Is Bad Enough For
You?). For Every Synth Is Different. Play With This For Getting The Less
Noise And The More Signal.

Also, Some Clean Sounding Synths Can Distort While The Volume Is Too Loud.
So Lower The SYNTH Volume Until It Sounds Ok...

Now, The Mixing Is On The Mixer, Not On The Synths Volume Knobs!

Other Topic Is The Synth MIDI Channel Volume. And That Is A Personal Taste!
(It Will Escalate with 128 steps. So For Mixing Most People Would Go The
MIXER Way). Some People Claim That The Midi Volume Actually Alters Sometimes
The Performance. That Is Deppending The Synth, Of Course, And, Again, Your
Taste.

I set my synths and keys to a undistorted level. Typically near noon to 3:o'clock. I don't like maxed anything.

Depends on what you are playing too.

Set them up to high, you loose your overheard for effects (dynamic range), that is if you use any.

Mixer is set to record near 0 or some reference, esp. when I feed it to the MOTU 24i and into Sonar. I don't want to loose any dynamic range for effects and such. Digital distortion when overloaded isn't pleasing to my ears.

(just how I do it.. you need to experiment and find what is suitable for you and your equipment)

dale
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edited reference below

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bjorn Standal 
  To: AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 9:36 AM
  Subject: [AN1x] Volume levels to the max on keyboard or mixer? Or neither?


  Dear listers,

  In the light of recent discussion concerning recording, I dare to ask a question maybe more suited to a "mixer-list", but I feel it may interest many attendees to the An1X-list:

  My mixer (like most I assume) have faders. In my set-up, I have set the volume knob on almost all my keyboards / synths to about 2/3 of max and then set the faders fixed to a value to make all the keyboards roughly the same "loudness". If a recording demands that one of the keyboards need more volume, I use the dial on the instrument to gain volume.

  Some people argue that the keyboards volume should always be maxed out and always use faders on mixer to adjust volume. Others claims that faders should be fixed at max and the instruments volume dial should be used to control the loudness.

  Is there any rule that says this is totally wrong or that is totally right, or is it cleanly up to the guy who listens (that would be me)?

  Sincerely yours,
  Bjorn Standal

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