Help A Layman Restore Recording Ability (Warning - Lengthy!)

[Audio Novice]

Hello. HomeRecording.com guys! Sorry in advance for the length of this, but I like to be as informative as possible when asking for assistance (and providing assistance)!

Roughly eight years ago or so I installed a pretty fancy little voice recording setup on my computer. Years went by and the thing served its purpose and I was happy to leave it well alone. One day, as these stories go, when I needed it again, it no longer worked and I've been unable to get it working again.

Now I turn to you all in my hour of need! I sincerely hope that a person with technical knowledge can direct me as to how to fix this mess and restore my lovely recording setup to its former glory. Please note that I don't remember a single thing about setting up this entire thing (and I'm rather impressed that I even did), so please treat me as a complete idiot in matters of sound recording - I could well have overlooked the simplest of solutions!

Let's move on to listing my arrangement.

I've got a computer, in which I've got a special audio recording card called the M-Audio Delta 1010LT. This card connects to a little mixer, which was the Behringer Xenyx 502, which then connects to my microphone, the Rode NT2-A.

I use the program Audacity, which I'm sure most of you are familiar with, to detect whether the sound is recording correctly (Windows never seemed comfortable with picking up the mic directly, so I always used Audacity to test if it was working).

So the Delta 1010LT connects the computer to the mixer and the mic, which requires phantom power, gets it from the little mixer. All in all it was a functional and neat little setup.

One day, however, when I tried the mic again, no matter what I did, the sound would record very faintly and quietly and it would be very muffled.

A friend mentioned that it was possibly my phantom power which had broken somehow, so I bought a replacement mixer, the Behringer Xenyx 802, the big brother of the 502, but the problem persisted.

The M-Audio Delta 1010LT seemed happier in the days of XP, so I installed Windows XP on my computer to see if the setup would be more tolerant of that Operating System. No dice! The recording volume remains incredibly low and muffled.

I'm completely stumped and I've no idea how to fix it, or even to assemble it once again. It's been years since I put it together and I don't remember a thing.

So I turn to you, HomeRecording.com denizens. Please help this foolish person restore audio recording clarity. Please explain what could be wrong and help me rebuild a functional audio recording setup!

I come with pictures to illustrate the situation... sorry about the scale!

Here's my Behringer Xenyx 802. Pretty straightforward I guess.

Behringer Xenyx 802

My Rode NT2-A.

Rode NT2-A

Two pictures of the wires which connect the mixer to the soundcard's attachment (soundcard not included in the picture).

Mess of wires and Delta 1010LT connector
Really a mess of wires

I have used this exact hardware with the card to produce beautiful recording quality before and it now only records a very, very, very faint and muffled sound - even a cheap desk microphone would surpass this setup as it is!

So please help me understand the following:

What could possibly cause this result? What can cause a mic to record at barely audible levels? Can a mic breaking cause it? Can the audio card itself be broken and cause it?

Also, the cabling setup may be incorrect. The adaptor which attaches to the sound card has the following labels on the cables which hang from it (X denotes a currently connected 3.5mm cable):

OUT 1 - X
OUT 2 - X
OUT 3 - X
OUT 4 - X
OUT 5
OUT 6
OUT 7
OUT 8

MIC 1
MIC 2
IN 3 - X
IN 4 - X
IN 5
IN 6
IN 7
IN 8

What does all this mean? Is it correct? Which respective slots in the mixer should these go into?

Hopefully a technical saint has the patience to read through all this and save me.

Thank you for reading!

 

[DM60]

1010 is a nice card. I have the 192 and have pretty much the same set up as you. My input from the mixer to the card, then output from the card to the mixer and my monitors volume is controlled by the mixer (little Mackie). Since Audacity does not use ASIO drivers, just make sure you have Windows set up right (make sure you have is selected in Audacity).

First things first.

Can you get any sound out of the card to your speakers. if yes, then you can move on, if no. We stop until you get audio. If you can't hear audio, connector your speakers straight to the card (make sure you can control the volume)

The RCA connectors that have tan/brown in color cables are inputs.
The RCA connectors that have black cables are outputs. Red and White being left and right for each set.

For the input, the XLR cables (3 holes) will probably be Mic 1 and 2.

The X's you show are to select which cables are active.

Here is a reference link for you to view: http://godzilla.kennedykrieger.org/fmri/Delta1010LT.pdf

Check all of your settings, go the the website for the driver for your OS. Make sure you understand how your mixer works.

Make sure your mixer outputs are going to your card inputs. (I know, but you always start with the basics).

Get that far, then can move forward with the mic. If you can borrow a mic that doesn't require phantom for a test of the inputs. (Bypassing the mixer since your mic needs phantom.

Let us know.

 

[ecc83]

I have a 2x 2496 +A&H mixer setup and so will be most interested to see the resolution of this problem.

OP, I can assure you that the Delta cards work perfectly well in Win7 (with the appropriate driver) and as one who is struggling with a fresh install of XP pro you might consider going back to W7 before doing anything else suggested here?

If you do decide to revert to (I assume) W7 then I strongly advise that you pull the card first and get W7 up and doing THEN plug it in and run the drivers.

Where in the world are you?

Dave.

 

[Audio Novice]

I return after a crazy week - sorry for the delay!

First things first.

Can you get any sound out of the card to your speakers. if yes, then you can move on, if no. We stop until you get audio. If you can't hear audio, connector your speakers straight to the card (make sure you can control the volume)

Here's where it gets a bit more complicated. I use a different soundcard to output sound. The soundcard performs perfectly, but my recording sound is muffled and barely audible. The Delta 1010LT is strictly for recording!

With the mic plugged in and the phantom 48v turned on, do the LED meters on the 802 mixer deflect up at least into the yellow or maybe red? Can you bring up the Gain on the mic channel and get the Red Peak LED to flash? And if you have some headphones plugged into the mixer can you hear the mic clearly if you bring up the Phones level?
I do have an 802A mixer and the black rectangle buttons above the "PHONES" control killed the output one time when one of them got depressed inadvertently. They should all be in the uup/out position.

Tapping on the microphone and speaking successfully makes the little mixer (thankfully the 802 has volume indicators on it where the 502 didn't) hit the orange levels comfortably and red if I'm louder, consistently.

I have a 2x 2496 +A&H mixer setup and so will be most interested to see the resolution of this problem.

OP, I can assure you that the Delta cards work perfectly well in Win7 (with the appropriate driver) and as one who is struggling with a fresh install of XP pro you might consider going back to W7 before doing anything else suggested here?

If you do decide to revert to (I assume) W7 then I strongly advise that you pull the card first and get W7 up and doing THEN plug it in and run the drivers.

Where in the world are you?

Dave.

I returned to Windows 7 immediately after the XP experiment. It was purely to test if something in Windows 7 was inhibiting the microphone's ability to capture nicely.

I'm from South Africa, why do you ask?

Thank you very much for the patience and for reading, guys. Hopefully there's a chance for my sound to be rescued in all this!

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Also, the cabling setup may be incorrect. The adaptor which attaches to the sound card has the following labels on the cables which hang from it (X denotes a currently connected 3.5mm cable):

OUT 1 - X
OUT 2 - X
OUT 3 - X
OUT 4 - X
OUT 5
OUT 6
OUT 7
OUT 8

MIC 1
MIC 2
IN 3 - X
IN 4 - X
IN 5
IN 6
IN 7
IN 8

I would say remove those output cables and put one regular stereo RCA cable on OUT 1 and 2 connected to the 2-track input of the mixer and assign the 2-track input to Control Room only. Going through the stock sound card (I'm assuming) is not a good plan for several reasons (latency, sound quality etc.). The 2-track output of the mixer would go to IN 3 and 4 of the 1010LT.

I would also stop using Audacity for anything critical. It's dependent on Windows' audio settings. In a proper DAW you can select drivers and devices independently of the Windows audio settings. Try Reaper.

 

[ecc83]

OP said "I'm from South Africa, why do you ask?" COZ! If you were in UK mainland I could have loaned you some kit!

And yes Mark, it is easy to get banjaxed by the Delta card's routing! Never quite got my head around it. My M.O. was, once I found a setup that worked, I saved it, the cards give you that option.

Dave.