Audio Novice
New member
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!
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!