A sure tipoff that a recording was made by an amateur is audible hiss, hum or buzz. This stuff is generally called "noise."

If you can only afford cheap gear, or the only electrical ground available to you is your wall outlet, then you'll probably have to live with some noise. But there is something you can do to keep it at a minimum.

It's a simple but often misunderstood principle called "gain staging." Or, as I call it, "BOOST EARLY, CUT LATE." Here's how it works:

As the musical signal goes from the microphone through your mixer to, eventually, a master tape, it passes through several electronic stages. Typically they'll be as follows:

At each stage, electronic noise will be added, especially if we have to boost the signal.

The trick to keeping this noise as low as possible is to have the signal enter each stage as loud as possible, without overloading the stage and causing unwanted distortion. At the same time, we want to avoid, as much as possible, having to boost the signal as we go.

What this translates to in practice is: BOOST EARLY, CUT LATE.

Boost Early, Cut Late

First of all, make sure the signal from your microphone is loud and strong. This is the earliest stage in the chain. Ideally you should have to turn down the preamp trim at your mixer to keep it from overloading! If a signal is weak, try a more sensitive microphone, move it closer to the source, or make the source louder.

Next, set both the channel fader and output fader at 0, or as it's sometimes called, "unity gain". If the signal to your multitrack tape recorder is too "hot", first try turning down the input level control on the tape recorder (if it has one) since this is the latest stage. If the signal to your multitrack is low, first try boosting the mixer preamp trim, since this is the earliest stage.

Similarly, if you find you must adjust the faders, use the channel fader to boost, and the output fader to cut.

During mixdown, follow the same principle. Make sure the signal from your multitrack to your mixer is as loud as possible without overloading the mixer. Then, if the signal to your master deck is too hot, begin cutting it at the master deck itself, and work your way backwards through the chain. If you have to boost, begin by boosting the output of the multitrack (if it has an output level knob) and work your way forward through the chain.

The "boost early cut late" principle also applies if you add outboard processors to the chain. Send the processor as hot a signal as you can, and if necessary cut the return.

You'll find that, for many reasons, it's not always possible or practical to follow these rules to the letter. But if you look at your mixer and see the channel fader at minus 20 and the output fader at plus 10, you're asking for noise! Try putting that channel fader at zero and cut the output fader to minus 10 instead.

Understanding the above principle and applying it as often as possible will make your recordings cleaner, more enjoyable, and more professional.