{"id":12212,"date":"2001-09-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-09-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/?p=12212"},"modified":"2007-04-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-27T00:00:00","slug":"new-audio-recording-bought-mp-20-optimal-input-reading","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/new-audio-recording-bought-mp-20-optimal-input-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m new to audio recording and I bought an MP-20. Is the optimal input reading on the LED meters  centered around zero or in the yellow? In other words should I be striving to get the meters into the yellow zone without clipping or down around unity (0) for the optimal signal\/noise?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Optimal level depends on your recording media. The best signal to noise is typically the hottest output you can get without clipping. The level you suggested for the MP20 metering is fine so long as you are not overdriving whatever is downstream from the mic pre. You may have to reduce the level on  the MP20 to accommodate the next device in the signal path. To reiterate, the hottest signal without  distortion is what you are trying for.<\/p>\n<p>Always remember with instruments and voices that you are dealing with dynamic signals filled with transients (loud peaks). If you are not using a gain control device such as a compressor or limiter then you will need to adjust the MP20 to the loudest part of the signal to guard against distortion.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"tags":[],"storecat":[],"itemids":[26096],"manufacturers":[33631],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out the I&#039;m new to audio recording and I bought an MP-20. Is the optimal input reading on the LED meters  centered around zero or in the yellow? In other words should I be striving to get the meters into the yellow zone without clipping or down around unity (0) for the optimal signal\/noise? page at Sweetwater \u2014 the world&#039;s leading music technology and instrument retailer!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/new-audio-recording-bought-mp-20-optimal-input-reading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I&#039;m new to audio recording and I bought an MP-20. Is the optimal input reading on the LED meters centered around zero or in the yellow? In other words should I be striving to get the meters into the yellow zone without clipping or down around unity (0) for the optimal signal\/noise? - SweetCare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Optimal level depends on your recording media. The best signal to noise is typically the hottest output you can get without clipping. The level you suggested for the MP20 metering is fine so long as you are not overdriving whatever is downstream from the mic pre. You may have to reduce the level on the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/new-audio-recording-bought-mp-20-optimal-input-reading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SweetCare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2007-04-27T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/\",\"name\":\"SweetCare\",\"description\":\"Service and Support\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/new-audio-recording-bought-mp-20-optimal-input-reading\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/new-audio-recording-bought-mp-20-optimal-input-reading\/\",\"name\":\"I'm new to audio recording and I bought an MP-20. 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Is the optimal input reading on the LED meters centered around zero or in the yellow? In other words should I be striving to get the meters into the yellow zone without clipping or down around unity (0) for the optimal signal\/noise?\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"description":"Check out the I'm new to audio recording and I bought an MP-20. Is the optimal input reading on the LED meters  centered around zero or in the yellow? In other words should I be striving to get the meters into the yellow zone without clipping or down around unity (0) for the optimal signal\/noise? page at Sweetwater \u2014 the world's leading music technology and instrument retailer!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/new-audio-recording-bought-mp-20-optimal-input-reading\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I'm new to audio recording and I bought an MP-20. Is the optimal input reading on the LED meters centered around zero or in the yellow? In other words should I be striving to get the meters into the yellow zone without clipping or down around unity (0) for the optimal signal\/noise? - SweetCare","og_description":"Optimal level depends on your recording media. 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