X1850 recout limiter

Was looking at recordings done with Serato and notced them not being affected by the mixers master limiter. Did some test recording to an external device and noticed that unbalanced rca out is limited and rec out isnt. Wondering if this is intentional and if theres is any way to change this behaviour

That is expected behavior. Rec out is getting the volume from your line gains. Master out is getting the volume from the master level.

So basically if I wanted to record the same signal I’m sending to the speakers I would have to record from master out and not the output dedicated for recording. That seems quite counterproductive.

Signal on the rec out is the same as master, just it is not affected by the master volume knob and is set for recording level. If You run Your channels at 0dB, you will get 0dB on the rec out. All todays mixer have the rec out set up this way.

Your external recorder doesn’t have a limiter built in as a option to apply to the input?

Anyway…might be a unpopular thing to say but I really feel that instead of trying to fix your recording you should put your energy into fixing your gain staging and mixing so you completely avoid tripping the limiter on the mixer. That is really the best way to have your recording matching the master output you are hearing on the speakers.

Serato is “taking” the master signal directly from the mixer’s internal soundcard DSP, it is not possible to apply the mixer’s limiter to that signal - but you can re-route the master output from the mixer using a short 2xRCA cable into one of the line inputs and then record that line input in Serato (my memory is a bit crappy since the days of using Rane SL interface with that trick so please somebody confirm this)

I believe Serato also has auto gain set as a default “on” option

Yes, it’s on by default