Mic Is Too Quiet!

[iceyflame]

Hey guys, Im using quite a good sounding philips mic -

the problem is that when im recording my drums (i only have one of these mics) i have to put the mic out in front of the drums, to get the full drumkit, but when i play it back on my multitrack program (audacity) it's very quiet (which you would expect, obviously) - but my problem is - if i turn my speakers up it makes it louder and sounds great and is louder - with out distorting it... but if i try to turn it up on my multitrack program it distorts it. I want to have it so its loud with out having people to turn up their speakers every time they listen to the song (im recording the drums for a song for my band).

that whole thing might be a bit hard to understand but i hope you know where im coming from

so basicly my question is, how can i increase the volume of the track with the same effect i would have from turning it up on the speakers.

[scrubs]

Solution 1: Turn up your speakers. If you like that sound, do it. Couldn't be any simpler than that, huh?

Solution 2: Make sure your preamp gain is turned up enough that you are getting a strong signal, but not clipping either the preamp or your soundcard (peaks should be between -6db and -3db. In your recording software, apply some compression and/or limiting to tame the peaks and allow you to turn up the average volume of the drum track without clipping the master bus.

[iceyflame]

Soulution 1: The thing is I have to turn it up ALOT and I want it to be so that when people listen to the song they dont have to turn up the speakers just to be able to hear something.

Solution 2: OK ill experiment with some limiting/compression.