Alesis 7-51-0214-b User Manual

 

 

 

 

 

A basic principle in digital recording is that you want to capture the 

loudest signal you can, but at the same time you never, ever want 

to exceed the maximum digital threshold.  If  you do, you’ll 

introduce the nasty distortion known as “digital clipping” into your 

recording.   

 

Your Alesis io provides a number of  methods to help you avoid 

digital clipping: 

 

1.  24-bit recording - Operating at 24 bits, the io offers 256 

times more resolution than that of  16-bit compact disks. 

 

One result of  that increased resolution is that you have far 

more headroom to work within.  You can easily record such 

that your loudest peaks for an unpredictable player are no 

greater than -12dBfs to -18dBfs.  (“dBfs” stands for “decibels 

at full scale”.  In digital, once you reach full scale, you’re using 

all of  the available resolution.  Attempting to record at 

greater than 0dBfs results in digital clipping.) 

 

2.  Dedicated hardware metering of  digital signal - The 

meters on the front panel of  the io show your audio signal as 

it is seen by the digital converters.  In other words, they’re 

totally accurate, unlike analog meters which only approximate 

the digital signal strength.   

 

3.  Dedicated input monitoring panel - In the HDM 

application, there is a special tab for Input Monitoring.  This 

tab provides an uncluttered view of  the strength of  your 

incoming signals.  (Note that the tab is always in “narrow” 

view to provide a quick overview of  all the channels.) 

 

4.  Pre-fader level monitoring - Again in the HDM application, 

all metering is always “pre-fader.”  That means that the 

metering shown to you is independent of  how you set the 

volume sliders.  This allows you to see your actual signal 

strength even as you’re creating various custom mixes for the 

people you are recording.