Mic input too weak

B

BorisMusic

Member
After years of experimenting and following advice and tutorials I still can't get to the bottom of this mystery. Just recently got a new Behringer C-1 mic through my Presonus audiobox 96 (to replace my scarlett CM-25 mic) the quality is just too soft like it's muffled as well even with phantom power on. Looking through tutorials that do reviews on this exact mic, people get WAY better sound quality than me unedited - not doing anything differently. The input really ramps up with the last 2-3 notches of the gain knob (95-100%) but by that time it's too much and starts to clip. All I need is simply a good quality recording of acoustic guitar and vocals (I prefer to record them seperately) for professional sounding music covers, nothing fancy, just the 2 tracks - I do tend to alternate between finger picking and strumming chords which makes this just a bit trickier but it shouldn't really be as difficult as I'm encountering it to be.

If it helps I'm using Windows 10 64bit, Studio one 3. Guitar recorded with the condenser mic pointed at the 12-15th fret not angled toward the soundhole as per advised. Not sure if it's my PC, my software, my mics, my interfaces. If there are any audio engineers out there any ideas would be appreciated thanks guys
 
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I think that the first question to ask is: are you sure that you're pointing the front of the mic towards the sound source? On the C1, that's the side with the power LED and the logo. You certainly wouldn't be the first to point the mic the wrong way :D

Is the power LED lit up when you supply phantom power?
 
Tadpui said:
I think that the first question to ask is: are you sure that you're pointing the front of the mic towards the sound source? On the C1, that's the side with the power LED and the logo. You certainly wouldn't be the first to point the mic the wrong way :D

Is the power LED lit up when you supply phantom power?
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Funny you mention it, I actually did point it backwards when I first set it up haha. So when turned the right way, the sound still not full enough. But it's not just that the signal sounds too weak, it just doesn't sound right. When playing guitar I can hear my shirt grinding against the guitar which is strange because others don't seem to have that problem.

And yes the LED is lit up, in red.
 
I'm not technical but are you using an xlr cable or quarter inch jack . I've been trying to see whether phantom power works with jack and can't see a definitive answer on the internet
 
maxman65 said:
I'm not technical but are you using an xlr cable or quarter inch jack . I've been trying to see whether phantom power works with jack and can't see a definitive answer on the internet
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XLR here (I have 2 and tried both), I don't recall ever using a quarter inch, not for a condenser mic anyway.
 
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whome said:
I strongly suspect win10 settings and drivers are the culprit.

The stock win from a dealer is not audio friendly.
And they do things they dont tell you about internally to default to what they think you should want not give you what you think you asked for.
Unless you research those and fix them first you will have problems.
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Interesting, thanks for letting me know, I actually had no idea. Do you suggest I try mac? Lot of people seem to be going in that direction.
 
Need a sound clip but if you can hear your clothes against the guitar you may have a gain staging issue. Somewhere between your mic, interface, computer and DAW isn't set right.

Changing to a mac will not fix this issue.
 
I wondered when I read this bit
quality is just too soft like it's muffled as well even with phantom power on
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With phantom off there should have been NO sound. So are you actually saying that the mic works on no power, because it can't and if it is working even a bit, then it's getting power from somewhere.

Please confirm you are using XLR-XLR cables and not the combo socket jacks. We always ask for sound samples, but in this case a video clip would be good - youtube, maybe? Show us how it's connected, how the mics are positioned and what you see on the screen. One of us might spot the problem. Talk us through it on the camera mic. I'm thinking "OK - here's the mic, it's plugged into here, and if I put the gain here, I get this on the screen etc etc "
 
rob aylestone said:
I wondered when I read this bit

With phantom off there should have been NO sound. So are you actually saying that the mic works on no power, because it can't and if it is working even a bit, then it's getting power from somewhere.

Please confirm you are using XLR-XLR cables and not the combo socket jacks. We always ask for sound samples, but in this case a video clip would be good - youtube, maybe? Show us how it's connected, how the mics are positioned and what you see on the screen. One of us might spot the problem. Talk us through it on the camera mic. I'm thinking "OK - here's the mic, it's plugged into here, and if I put the gain here, I get this on the screen etc etc "
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I shouldve clarified, there is NO sound with the phantom power turned off. It is definitely XLR to XLR, I have a red cable (that came with my scarlett 2i2 and a black one i use for busking.
Ill try take some photos and maybe a vid later on but there's nothing really special that I'm doing - I connect the mic, it's sitting right in front of me on a mic stand about a foot away (I've tried many positions, even turning it upside down) with a pop filter, I open my DAW and go direct input so i can hear myself through my headphones. Here is a good tutorial that i followed, you notice how clear the mic is just from him talking, this is the kinda thing im striving for YouTube
 
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The C-1 isn't a bad sounding mic by any means. It's pretty noisy, but not bad sounding. So the muffled sound that you're experiencing is definitely not normal. If the LED is lit up, then it's being supplied phantom power. If your cable is proven to be good, and your interface is proven to be good, then the prime suspect is the mic.

I assume that you've tried your other mic with the same cable and interface? And it sounds fine?

If that's the case, then I'd heavily suspect a fault with the mic. I'd have my trigger finger hovering over the "exchange for a new one" button from your retailer.
 
Tadpui said:
The C-1 isn't a bad sounding mic by any means. It's pretty noisy, but not bad sounding. So the muffled sound that you're experiencing is definitely not normal. If the LED is lit up, then it's being supplied phantom power. If your cable is proven to be good, and your interface is proven to be good, then the prime suspect is the mic.

I assume that you've tried your other mic with the same cable and interface? And it sounds fine?

If that's the case, then I'd heavily suspect a fault with the mic. I'd have my trigger finger hovering over the "exchange for a new one" button from your retailer.
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I have about 5 different mics, same problem. One is a BM 800, Scarletts Cm25, got a guitar mic and a SM58 dynamic. The guy in the tutorial says he recorded a whole album using an SM57, which isn't even a condenser. I wonder how he managed to boost that signal well enough to do that
 
BorisMusic said:
I have about 5 different mics, same problem. One is a BM 800, Scarletts Cm25, got a guitar mic and a SM58 dynamic. The guy in the tutorial says he recorded a whole album using an SM57, which isn't even a condenser. I wonder how he managed to boost that signal well enough to do that
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Oh, so it's several mics that all sound bad through the same cable and interface? In that case, it's gotta be the cable or the interface at fault.
 
Tadpui said:
Oh, so it's several mics that all sound bad through the same cable and interface? In that case, it's gotta be the cable or the interface at fault.
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Yeah its the main reason i bought yet another mic, but i don't mind having a collection anyway. I have 2 cables and no difference. In my head Im narrowing it down to the PC and the DAW. I've sent presonus support team my system info file so hopefully if it's a PC related problem they'll be able to pinpoint it.
 
BorisMusic said:
I have about 5 different mics, same problem. One is a BM 800, Scarletts Cm25, got a guitar mic and a SM58 dynamic. The guy in the tutorial says he recorded a whole album using an SM57, which isn't even a condenser. I wonder how he managed to boost that signal well enough to do that
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PLEASE don't tell me you own five microphones and only ONE XLR cable?! The Presonus has two mic inputs FCS.

If indeed you have a spare cable and can prove it is good (test meter of course) The AI becomes the only real suspect. OR, you have something weird going on in Windows Sound settings. That last is unlikely since I assume the Presonus has ASIO drivers and you are using them?

What sort of levels do you get plugging in a guitar into High Z or a phone say into line? All the front inputs you see go through the same pre amps.

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
PLEASE don't tell me you own five microphones and only ONE XLR cable?! The Presonus has two mic inputs FCS.

If indeed you have a spare cable and can prove it is good (test meter of course) The AI becomes the only real suspect. OR, you have something weird going on in Windows Sound settings. That last is unlikely since I assume the Presonus has ASIO drivers and you are using them?

What sort of levels do you get plugging in a guitar into High Z or a phone say into line? All the front inputs you see go through the same pre amps.

Dave.
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What does FCS mean?

Yes I have a spare, black in colour, the other one is red (the one that came with my scarlett 2i2). Yes presonus has ASIO drivers, AudioBox USB 96 | Downloads | PreSonus

I get fairly weak wave forms, it's advised that we normalize the sound in the DAW to bring the waveform up (make the track louder) however that just amplifies my poor quality muffled track
 
Did I miss it or did you not post a sample? That has to be the best way for us to get a better solution.
 
Mickster said:
Did I miss it or did you not post a sample? That has to be the best way for us to get a better solution.
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Hey sorry I'm still waiting for presonus to get back to me on the PC side of things. But hopefully i'll have it up by Monday. If they can figure it out before that, then my problem will be solved. If not, I'll make a sample as I turn the gain knob up to show how the different levels sound.

PS: I just installed the latest ASIO driver on my other older PC (AMD CPU) and the same problem there too. The input increases rapidly on the last 2-3 notches of the gain knob. I've just sent presonus that piece of info as well.
 
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BorisMusic said:
Hey sorry I'm still waiting for presonus to get back to me on the PC side of things. But hopefully i'll have it up by Monday. If they can figure it out before that, then my problem will be solved. If not, I'll make a sample as I turn the gain knob up to show how the different levels sound.
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Can you also try a line input, a feed from a phone should easily hit -20dB fs in the DAW and that is where stuff should be.

BTW, the NICER version is "For HEAVEN Sake"

Dave.
 
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