The joys and sorrows of my first project

[tkofaith]

Well, I finally got around to recording my first basic song on my BR after using it mainly for practicing my band's set list.  I must say that I learned a lot about how to use this machine pretty quickly on this one little project!  I got all of the tracks bounced to two and entered Mastering mode.  After selecting an effect and doing a little fine tuning I had what sounded like a pretty decent recording.  I exported the song to .wav and added an end fade.  The bass was not distorted when I ran the Master, but on my .wav it is distorted.  I've tried to remaster it several times, but no matter what I do it is distorted.  I'm assuming that, since I didn't discover the level meter until after everything was recorded, I must have had the record level for the bass track way too hot (although I never got an OVER warning).  I'm going to chalk it up to inexperience and start over (good practice anyway!).  I'm not going to delete the old version just yet, so I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks!

[64Guitars]

I must have had the record level for the bass track way too hot (although I never got an OVER warning).

Record level is set by the INPUT LEVEL control and only affects the Level Meter - not the OVER indicator which is located before the INPUT LEVEL control in the signal path. Only the Input Sensitivity setting can affect the OVER indicator.

Normal record mode signal path:
[Guitar Input]-->[Sensitivity]-->[OVER]-->[Insert FX]-->[INPUT LEVEL]-->[Level Meter (IN)]-->[Track]-->[Track Level]-->[Level Meter (TRx)]-->[Reverb]-->[Master Level]-->[Level Meter (L/R)]-->[Output]

As you can see, the position of the INPUT LEVEL control in the signal path prevents it from affecting the OVER indicator. To get a clean recording, you must first set the Input Sensitivity so that the OVER indicator does not light when you're playing aggressively. But don't set it lower than you have to. You need a strong, clean input signal for best results. After setting the Input Sensitivity, you can adjust the INPUT LEVEL control according to the IN level meters in the display. If the OVER indicator lights, you need to go back and lower the Input Sensitivity, not the INPUT LEVEL control.

Notice that, in normal record mode, the Track Level and Master Level come after the track. That's why they have no effect on your recording. You can safely adjust them as much as you like while the recording is in progress. But it's a different story in Bounce Mode and Mastering Mode.

Bounce/Mastering mode signal path:
[4 Playback Tracks]-->[4 Track Levels]-->[Level Meter (TR1-TR4)]-->[Reverb]-->[Master Level]-->[Level Meter (L/R)]-->[Destination Tracks]

In bounce mode and mastering mode, you're recording the mix of the 4 Playback Tracks to the Destination Tracks, and the 4 Track Levels and Master Level will affect the recording level. So it's important when bouncing or mastering to set those levels correctly according to the 4 track level meters and the master level meter (L/R). Note also that the reverb will be recorded in bounce mode and mastering mode. However, in normal record mode, the reverb is not recorded.

[tkofaith]

Thanks for the lesson.  I'm printing this for future reference.  When I did the Mastering (the second and subsequent times), I monitored the track levels and kept them as high as I could based on the peaks.  I've been thinking about this all day...I don't know why I did it, but I doubled the bass track and panned one left and the other right (instead of centering one track.  I'm betting that had something to do with the distortion.  Any way, I learned a lot about our little machine this weekend and future projects can only get better.

Thanks again!