audition/ce pro and layla 24/96...HELP, i'm so frustrated!

[minorkeylee]

i've been using ce pro/audition for 4 years...i know it inside and out, well, at least i used to think so...now i've taken the next step: bought a layla and a 16 ch. board, monitors, mics etc...seems like i'm going in reverse now and i need some advice.

my levels are weak when recording. with the exception of live drum tracks (drums seem to work just fine)...there appears to be no real way to adjust input levels on layla...is this true? sure, you can toggle between +4 and -10, but that's not getting it done....even stranger is the discrepancy between input/record level on layla console and the level the mixing board is showing....i've got levels pushed like crazy on the board (+4 or more, trimmed way up on gain and nearly full blast on main) just to get a -20db record signal...what the heck? toggling between +4 and -10 makes some difference, but not enough to justify the huge discrepancy between live signal on board and actual signal recorded....

 

[Jim Y]

That certainly is a huge drop in level.
It's not unusual for there to be no gain possible in an audio interface line connection. They are usually "preset" to provide unity gain to suit one or either of those two signal level standards you can select.

I'm not familiar with your mixer board or the Layla, but it could be an accumulation of losses. Connecting unbalance to balanced loses a bit (3db?). Failing to pan a mono track on the board hard left or right (if you're using the main, monitor or an Alt/Sub stereo bus as record send) loses about 4db. Recording a mono input to a stereo track loses some more - it all adds up. However, the drop you're seeing seems a lot more than all these things together could do.
The only other thing I can think of is that Windows Sound mixer is possibly interfering - if the Layla is also used for Windows sounds. You can get at the Windows record control from Auditions options menu.