4th Gen. Focusrite Scarlett Series Interfaces – Solo, 2i2 and 4i4
October 19, 2023
2 Comments
Read More »
A listener recently asked me, “Hey Chris. Love the show. Just been listening to you talking with Jim Harold. Question. What does ‘hot’ mean in the context of recorded sound. Cheers.” ~Joff. UK.
My answer:
Usually “hot” is an adjective referring to the high/loud/strong level of audio, as opposed to a levels that are low or optimal. For instance, in practice, if you crank a microphone preamp too much and the level is peaking/clipping, you would say that the mic’s level is really hot, and then you would turn down the preamp in order to bring down the level to a more optimal level. Make sense?
Want to receive the Daily Goody in your email, daily or weekly? Subscribe free here.
And please keep in mind, the Daily Goody is only a tiny little tip, fact or lesson everyday. Please don’t expect any of these posts to be long, earth-shattering masterpieces that instantly answer every single question you can think of and completely transform you into a world class podcast engineer. “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”
.
DID YOU KNOW……..We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. We appreciate you listening.
Browse our online courses on podcasting and audio production to become a qualified engineer.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. More information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
2 Responses
In the analogue world, recording hot meant recording at a level that almost took it into distortion, meaning that you got some warmth from the saturated recording and lowered the noise floor in relation to the recorded sound.
Recording hot in a digital world is likely to produce unpleasant digital distortion unless you are proficient in mic technique and treating the audio input through a compressor/limiter. The noise floor of the recording medium is much less of an issue that in the analogue word, therefore if presented with a mic and a recorder and especially of location, I would tend to bring the input down from hot.