please help

[mrduval]

I'm sorry this is sorta long for a first post but I need some help.

I'm running pro tools m powered along with the projectmix interface

Just got it all set up, went to try to record my friends band. Borrowed all the drum mics from the club I work at as a bartender, got everything mic - ed up.
1 on snare
1 on hi hat
1 on roll tom
1 on floor ton
1 on kick
1 around the ride
2 overheads

The interface was getting the signal and so was pro tools, however say he would use the kick you get a signal to record but nothing through the monitors until playback. That is problem one, I would like to hear what I'm recording before recording it or at least as I record.

The other thing was all the mics plugged in with the trim knob all the way left, which should have the preamps pretty much off but the signals were still clipping. So I couldn't power the mics enough to get a decent sound level. Pretty much recorded everything trim knob hard left then when I go to mix I have to pull the faders all the up and it still sounds so off in the distance.

Any ideas on how to fix this. I know I'm not gonna get a great drum tone for awhile, you know gotta pratice but I know for a fact this shouldn't be going on and I'm sure its something I'm doing. So please reply, private message, email me anything. Thank you all in advance for this and all the help I've gotten off this site in the last few months.

[jonnyc]

You'll have to pad all those preamps. It sucks but that's the price of recording drums with those preamps(same situation with 002). As far as the monitoring goes you should refer to your manual but I've never had a problem with pro tools not monitoring correctly. Might check to make sure everything setup correctly.

[mrduval]

Sweet now I gotta figure out what that means.. Hahaha

I can record acoustic guitar bass and vocals pretty decent but I swear drums make me wanna kill myself.

[mrduval]

Ok I've looked here and other places can't really get a grasp, I can use this set up to do "decent" recordings, you know just to get an idea of how it sounds without playing it, HOWEVER I need to "pad my preamps", someone please explain what this actually means. If this is a dumb question I'm sorry I just havnt been doing this long.

[jonnyc]

You have to buy these little devices that go between your preamps and mics called "pads". The attentuate your signal, generally -20db's, or something like that. They'll keep your preamps from clipping and sounding like crap. Check out Shure, I think they make some decent ones.