Waveforms get smaller when you record in Traktor?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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1

Waveforms get smaller when you record in Traktor?

I just noticed that when recording anything in traktor (whether I use my internal ddj-t1 soundcard or switch to my traktor audio 6) the waveform becomes much smaller and the audio volume seems to drop.

Is this normal and has anyone else noticed this?

2

u shud throw it into ableton n compress it m8, make it phat

3

Your gain staging must be wrong.

4

Totally normal. A recording level of -15 to -12db is about right. Easier to boost up the volume later than re-record because you’ve run too hot eh.

5

Thanks for the replies guys.

It was just shocking to lose that beautiful waveform after I recorded and was afraid I’d lost too much sound quality. The sound quality still seems similar… I’ll just have master it up in other software.

6

The sound quality won’t be lacking just because it’s queiter.

As others have said it is better to record quieter then bring up the volume in your DAW, as you can’t undo clipping if you record to hot.

7

any tips on boosting the volume? i’ve noticed this with some of my recordings too. had a buddy fatten one up with cubase but the highs came out too loud. that recording was done from cdjs directly into cubase. but i’ve noticed the quieter volume with traktor recordings.

8

Just don’t have anybody “fatten it up”. Simply load it into any kind of audio editor (free ones like audacity are totally fine), normalize, export - done.

9

i use this tutorial. I made a template in ableton to import my mixes into and this gives it a pretty good master every time.

http://abletonlife.com/how-to-master-a-track-in-ableton-live

10

Normalized mixes will inevitably sound quieter than the original tracks, as the in-phase transients during the transitions will limit the amount of gain that can be evenly applied to the track before clipping.

11

/thread again

12

Check out my mastering thread in the Mixes/Production forum for some tips on that. At the very least you can apply some gain to the file, just keep the peak output to less than -.1 db or you will get clipping.
You can use a free Program called Audacity which actually has some cool features for a free product, you can use that for recording, cleaning up and converting all your recordings.