following on from a previous post i wondered how people went about doing this??
for instance i open a drum rack up and fill it with percussive poarts kick,clap,high hat,snare etc…
it automatically sets the sample to -12db?
so would you leave them all at the -12db and use the faders on the mixer to sort frequencies and just boost from your interface or tweak all the samples up to -6db for instance?still leaving 6db of headroom to play with??
i find it very quiet when at -12db and have to crank my interface upto get a clear hearing of whats going on in the mix??
also what do you believe to be the best for creating drums? drum rack or impulse?
the only problem i have with impulse is the restriction of 8 samples and having to re-route to an audio track to add effects!
all opinions welcome are still quite new to production so want to really get the basics right first time as in setting volume levels etc…
thanks
jay 
I personally like to keep it at -12db or lower really.
Kicks at -12, hats and what not at around -18, snares at -15 and so on.
Just remember, headroom applies to all sounds together, so that -6db headroom you left after the kick alone means your gonna fill that remaining 6 db up that much faster. You want as much headroom as possible to add in all those other elements, everything takes away from your headroom space.
This is just my opinion, my mixdowns arent great but they feel good enough to me that I can hear all my elements all at once instead of certain items being drowned out. My mastering aint great either, but again I feel I can get a track loud enough with some Ozone and leaving as much headroom during my mixdown as I can.
EDIT: I prefer drumrack to Impulse. Only real advantage Impulse has is that it comes with the sample stretching features which I have never really used personally.
Though I have heard from others that if you want to create varied hats for example, one thing you could do is set up the same sample over and over again in Impulse and stretch them different and transpose them slightly different and just randomly change between them… In which case Impulse is prolly better, DrumRack can still do the Transposing thing though…
im going to trythis approach mate i have yamaha hs80s and a focusrite saffire 6 i find myself really boosting my interface at such low levels?? any idea is it a preference or set up problem or just basically quiet due to levels??
but will keep headroom in mind whenever mixing from now on
Honestly im not sure cause I have neither of those two items, someone is prolly better helping you there.
But to help you out a bit more in regards to headroom I remember reading this article which explained it so well to me. Cant remember who posted it on these forums before but its one of the few things ive read and its helped me so much.
http://dnbscene.com/article/88-thinking-inside-the-box-a-complete-eq-tutorial/1
I think page two describes headroom, its definately worth a read.
in my noob opinion its sound advice.also in the ableton website you can download a minus artist pack.its interesting to see how differently they all work.one of the sessions is super low in volume and bought up with a multiband.i think it was Fabrizio Maurizi.worth a look.
Tbh you might aswell put a limiter or compressor on your mastet channel just so you can work towards the sound you want at the end. This to me sounds like because your working at low levels your having to turn the volume up overall this is ok and headroom is always good it can just be annoying as your really having to crank it.
I was a long time Impulse user and recently switched to Drum Racks. I just find DR more conveniant and I really like it. I also heard impulse can take a few miliseconds of the initial attack of the sample. Slightly damaged samples is never a good thing.