Does this sound right..Please help

[timbo101]

Hi, I am a complete Noob to home recording and I dont know exactly what to expect in my results. Over the past months I have changed hardware a few times but I need an opinion from people who have some idea of whats going on. I am never happy with the raw recording quality I have been getting so can I get some advice please. I have a Shure SM57 Mic which is plugged in to a Behringer Ultragain tube pre amp which is connected by gold leads to the inputs on my M Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card. I have reverted back to using N Track studio software as I get on best with it allthough it only seems to let me record in 16 bit as it crashes when I change it to 24bit but that should be OK.
I have uploaded a very small sound clip of my Didgeridoo here

http://s57.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0W5UEU5PDB4X01SRK0DOUXYTXC

so can people have a listen and tell me if that is the sort of quality I should be getting with my setup or should it be a lot better.It is purely a raw recording with nothing done to it as I dont know really what to do next??? Also can someone give me an idea of what to do next to sharpen and tidy the sound up etc etc. Any help would be really appreciated please.
Many thanks......Tim

 

[panoramical]

I don't know if it's just me, but I got no sound...
EDIT: The sound is incredibly quiet...you need to sort that out. You can't really judge the sound quality from a didgeridoo...a guitar would be better probably. I seemed ok however.

 

[timbo101]

Hi, I know this might sound really stoopid but how do I stop my recording from being so quiet. Its as high as I can get it on the recording vu meter without it clipping....Thanks

 

[panoramical]

Have you tried going to the Volume Control Settings in XP and selecting your Audiophile balances for recording? Otherwise, it could be something your software, and since I'm not familiar with it I couldn't help you. Sorry

 

[timbo101]

Actualy I have just had a look at the M Audio Delta control panel for my soundcard and all the levels within the monitor mixer have always been right at the bottom so that might have something to do with it maybe. I have now set all the levels to -10.0 and will have another go at that level to see what happens...