Constant clipping...

[bowler_man]

Hello everyone. For my band's acoustic project, I'm using my MXL 992 condenser microphone for vocals. An issue that constantly comes up is that the vocal tracks always clip. They're not necessarily that loud though at all. But once they hit their peak, they distort. Even if I play it on my computer quieter than regular music, you can still definitely hear it distorting. One thing I can think of that may be a problem is that I have the gain up pretty darn high on my mixer. I keep the actual channel volume and master volume down some while I record, and I get most of my volume from the gain control. Should I turn up the channel and master volumes up all the way (or at least more) before I bump up the gain, and just use the gain as extra volume if I need it? Could it also just be the microphone itself. Is it a thing where maybe the mic is "weak", and it doesn't take much for it to distort? Or maybe the mixer? I'm using an Alesis MultiMix mixer (USB interface), by the way. Any ideas on how to fix this annoyance?

Oh, and another question. When I'm done recording and mixing a song on my laptop, I listen to a regular professional song, and then adjust the master volume of my song to match the volume height to it. But when I email the song to myself, and play it on my desktop, it's significantly quieter than other songs...

Anyone know why?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

 

[Dogbreath]

I would set my mixers track and master faders at unity and back off the input trim.
I'm assuming you've got phantom power.

As to the loudness thang.....don't sweat it. Comparing your tunes to some that have been thru mastering isn't fair to you.
I quit trying to get mine super loud and just go for quality now. You can, however, get louder by throwing a limiter across the buss and pump it up there. Play around with it tho cuz too much really kills the life of a good dynamic song.

JMHO, of course...........Kel