Dell Inspiron running Win 10, x64 bit
Studio One v4 (the one before the update to 4.5)
Tascam Celesonic 20x20
Older Digital Reference Drum Mic set (unknown year, but early 2000s)
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone here records acoustic drum sets in Studio One. I'm having serous issues with my mixdowns and masters. I don't understand why my mixes are about 1/10 lower than professional masters while still somehow clipping and distorting. For example, I loaded "The Sign" by Ace of Bass into my Song page. I was able to crank it until it was up to -24db on the RMS meter (I believe it might be in K-14, actually) in the output with no effects on anything. It was loud in my ears with my monitors at about halfway. When I turn the track volume up to 0db it doesn't clip anywhere and hangs right at that level on the output meter. My drums disappeared WAY below the initial -24db level when the bass and synth kicked in though. I can't add anything to my drums afterwords without them sounding really bad and distorting and just sounding like tin cans with all of the bleed from my hats and toms and snare cutting into each other. I also can't record them at a higher level without them distorting, either. I don't understand how this works. I thought I could at least get them to sound louder. My friend told me he thinks my waveforms are way too small. I checked and they are, but there's nothing I can do without my interface clipping or my DAW clipping. I can't raise my levels, and like I said it just sounds weird when I do. I'd love to go to recording school, but I don't have the time or the money. Internet access isn't that great either, and I can't find anything anywhere for recording drums on Studio One. Any help is greatly appreciated, as I've been going insane for years now.
Thanks,
-Brandon
P.S. I don't know if this goes here or not, but there is an option in the Audio Settings for the Tascam Mixing Engine. I don't know what this is, as I use the other option (Tascam (20x20)). Is that part of the problem? I can't record with the mixing engine option, as I don't have the ability to include the inputs into the system. Is that literally there for mixing purposes? Sorry for the inexperience, as I'm loaded with it, so it seems.