Sound but not my voice

enatic1213

New member
I bought a digidesign minibox2 with a mxl990 condensor mic and pro tools, now when recording in protools i know that the microphone is recording sound because when ever i touch it even the slightest little bit it makes a noise and records it. But when i try to record my vocals i get nothing. Again when ever i touch the mic i get a reaction, in pro tools i can see the green red and yellow colors moving and all but when i try to use my own vocals i get abosultly nothing. Is their something wrong with microphone, or maybe my computer settings i'm using windows vista all help is greatly appreciated.
 
What does the sound of touching the mic sound like when you play it back? Scratching, popping or buzzing?

You have phantom power on?

Tried a different cable?
 
Um its like a buzzing noise and then when i touch it, it sounds like i was beating a drum.

I think i have phantom power on

No unfortunatly i dont have another cable
 
My guess is you have an open circuit somewhere. First choice would be the cable. Could be connectors in the cable, the mic or the box. I'll assume you don't have another mic also.

Do you have a soldering iron and know how to solder? If not, the easiest thing to do would be to get and try another cable. If that doesn't fix it, you'll need to try another mic.
 
I bought a digidesign minibox2 with a mxl990 condensor mic and pro tools, now when recording in protools i know that the microphone is recording sound because when ever i touch it even the slightest little bit it makes a noise and records it. But when i try to record my vocals i get nothing. Again when ever i touch the mic i get a reaction, in pro tools i can see the green red and yellow colors moving and all but when i try to use my own vocals i get abosultly nothing. Is their something wrong with microphone, or maybe my computer settings i'm using windows vista all help is greatly appreciated.

Just so I'm clear--do you know that the "thump" is being recorded? Can you play it back, or do you just see the levels jumping? And do the levels jump when you talk or sing into the mic?
 
Looking at the mbox, it has a headphone jack. Do you have headphones, and do you have sound through them?

It also has DI inputs. Do you have an electric guitar or keyboard with 1/4" cable for them? If so, do you get sound from them through the DI jacks?
 
In Reply to whitestrat

Yeah I can hear the thump during playback and can see the levels jumping but when i try to record vocals i get nothing, no levels jumping or anything
 
Looking at the mbox, it has a headphone jack. Do you have headphones, and do you have sound through them?

It also has DI inputs. Do you have an electric guitar or keyboard with 1/4" cable for them? If so, do you get sound from them through the DI jacks?

Yeah when i plug my headphones into the mbox jack i can hear sound, i dont have a guitar i have a keyboard but i'm not sure if it will plug into the mbox
 
Is it jumping a lot when you tap the mic? or just barely? Can you amplify/normalize the track digitally afterwards and hear any vocals?

There are mic levels associated with your interface / soundcard. These are muted / set to zero by default (in the case of Alsa/Linux). You might check those first. I generally keep mine in the 30 to 70% range. Most cards distort a little when at the extremes of it's abilities. The last 15% on my laptop just gets really whacked. It just sounds better to under record level wise on my lower end gear. And then digitally amplify it in post.

For your issue, you may just have your levels too low on your interface. While the preamps and everything else are just fine.
 
grounding issue

if you really aren't getting ANYTHING at all when you do vocals, no matter how high you push the gain, with compressing, limiting, the whole deal.

Try touching the microphone while you record the vocals. Maybe there's a grounding issue?
 
Is it jumping a lot when you tap the mic? or just barely? Can you amplify/normalize the track digitally afterwards and hear any vocals?

There are mic levels associated with your interface / soundcard. These are muted / set to zero by default (in the case of Alsa/Linux). You might check those first. I generally keep mine in the 30 to 70% range. Most cards distort a little when at the extremes of it's abilities. The last 15% on my laptop just gets really whacked. It just sounds better to under record level wise on my lower end gear. And then digitally amplify it in post.

For your issue, you may just have your levels too low on your interface. While the preamps and everything else are just fine.

Yes, when i tap the mic the levels jump alot almost to the highest level. Are the adjustable levels on the interface or in the program pro tools? I have 4 knobs on my interface one for headphone volume a mixing one and two different ones for an input, if its in protools i have no clue where to go?
 
sounds like the cable to me. There is probably a loose connection. Might as well buy a new cable there not too expencive.
 
Back
Top