Smartgain is a feature on our EVO interfaces which automatically and intelligently sets the input levels of your microphones or instruments. This makes it really easy to get a perfect gain setting when starting to record.
As a bit of background for those that might not know, its always really important to set your input levels correctly whenever you are recording. If you set it too high, you might end up creating some nasty distortion by basically overloading the input. Set it too quiet and you’ll end up needing to boost it in software which will add extra noise to your recording in the form of a hiss.
Of course, you can manually set your gain if you’d like, and it’s really easy to do. But with SmartGain, the EVO interface will sort all this out for you, even setting the gains multiple inputs at the same time!
Getting Started
Let’s have a look at how you actually use Smartgain for recording. As an example, let’s say we’ve connected a Guitar and a Microphone to EVO 8 and want to record them both at the same time.
To start, simply press the green Smartgain button. The two input buttons will now pulse to indicate that you now in Smartgain. Now select the inputs that you wish to use Smartgain on, in this example, we’d tap both 1 and 2 since we’re using both inputs.
Then when I press the Smartgain button again, it will flash red and the LED ring will start pulsing to show that it is listening.
Play through the piece you’re about to record and EVO 8 will set the ideal levels to ensure that your recording isn’t too loud or too quiet. Once it’s set the levels the Smartgain button will flash green to indicate it’s done and that is it! You now have the perfect level set for recording.
Tips and Tricks
If Smartgain doesn’t detect any audio on the channels, it will flash red. In this case, double-check your connections to make sure that everything is plugged-in correctly. If you’re using a microphone that requires phantom power, ensure that you have turned this on before you use Smartgain.
To get the best results, when setting levels manually or using Smartgain, its always good to pick the loudest section of what you are recording, whether a loud guitar part in the chorus of a song, or the volume of a loud conversation or laughter if recording a podcast. This way you don’t get caught out if you have any loud parts, and you still have a bit of space if someone goes a bit over the top!
If you want to adjust your levels manually then this can be easily done by simply tapping an input button and turning the knob up or down to adjust the gain.
Making Recording Easier
Smartgain makes recording and capturing audio easier by doing all the hard work and allows you to concentrate on the important things; whether that’s writing a new song, recording a new episode of your podcast, or getting a mic set up to do some streaming.
You can simply focus on being creative and getting great sounding audio!