Noob mic question

[drewz0r]

Both of my mics (a dynamic and a small diaphram condenser) are used in various positions around my guitar amp that is set to a decent volume, not blaring but still a pretty good sound. The mic's return good sound but its pretty quiet, probably somewhere around 35% of the sound ratio (0 being silent, 100 being clipping)

is this normal?

(i run both through an Mbox 2 with the send knob at 6ish/10, normal XLR cables)

[Monkey Allen]

I don't know much about this, but look into something to do with mic 'unity', which means the level of amplification or boost a mic requires to produce a satisfactory sound volume. Don't quote me.

I find that to get a decent signal with my CADm177 or Behringer C2's, I have to turn on the +12db boost AND set the gain to 9/10. 6/10 would be a weak signal for me.

I have a Presonus Firebox. I guess it depends on what kind of boost a mic needs. Maybe if I had a different kind of mic I would only need to set the gain to 4/10.

I dunno, it's all a grey area for me.

[garbagelarge]

what kind of mic pre-amp are you running into? what is the gain set at? where does the signal go from there? do you have phantom power for your condenser?