condenser mic troubles

[macafied]

First off, I am new to home recording. My setup right now includes a Nady SCM900 condenser mic which I run it through a small behringer mixer straight into the line in my soundcard. I am using Cakewalk Home Studio to record.

Now, the other day, everything is working fine recording my acoustic guitar and vocals and all that. Everything sounds pretty good. Today, I record again and I am getting distortion and the sound waves are all squared off at the top and bottom (clipping?). I have tried turning the gain and levels way down on the mixer and also tried turning the line in on the windows mixer way down. Still getting distortion. I switched the condenser with a dynamic, kept the settings the same and the distortion went away. Is it possibly a defective mic (just got it new a couple weeks ago so I can still send it back)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jblount]

I dont have any experience with the nady condensors. Does the mic have any pads, or switches?

 

[cominginsecond]

sounds to me like you just need to turn it down more. Newbies sometimes have a hard time understanding how low you have to turn condensor mics down to prevent clipping.

 

[macafied]

Thanks for your replies.

There are no switches. By pad do you mean windscreen? It didn't come with one but I have one I can try.

When I mic my guitar, I have the condenser about a foot away from it at the 12th fret. I'll try turning the gain down more yet.

The reason I am posting however, is because just a few days ago I had no trouble with it. I had all the levels set right to get a decent sounding recording. Then yesterday, my recordings are distorted and clipping even though the levels on the mixer are set about the same.

Oh, one other thing, when recording, the meter on the mixer does not show that it is clipping. It doesn't even go yellow.

 

[cominginsecond]

Oh, one other thing, when recording, the meter on the mixer does not show that it is clipping. It doesn't even go yellow.

This isn't important. Go with the levels in your software/soundcard.