Help ! How To Prevent Audio Distortion.

[Hamish Grant]

Hi There,

Right so  I am trying to play about with my old digital multitracker and everything is fine just the Audio 

Quality is very distorted, how can I prevent this ? 
I know that it is due to an overpowered signal but I have played about with the settings and I just can't 

stop the sound distorting?

Can anyone help me ? Any good sugestions out there ?

 

Thanks, 

Hamish

 

[TapperMike]

Everything in the chain affects sound quality.

 

An over powered signal is the first place to start.

What are you trying to record (Guitar, bass, vocal) electric/acoustic?

 

Are you using any signal processors before plugging into the multi-track? Is it line out or speaker out or amp out or headphone out?

 

Have you adjusted the trim and the fader down?

[starise]

 Does the multitracker have any kind of level reference?  You want to stay well below 0db. On the Db sound scale the higher the number under 0db the less signal you're getting  For instance -10 db is not as loud as -5db. . Anything abover 0db is clipping and therefore distorting.

 

 Most professional recordings are gain staged. The first take of an instrument or voice may be at -6db or less. Then the signal is sent to master and usually compressed or limited to just under 0bd. Different types of music require different settings. The more you compress the less dynamic range you have.

 

 Check that whatever you're inputting into the recording channel isn't overloading the input. You want to be usually between -6 and 0db.. You may also have a bad input channel on your recorder