In too deep: Sink or swim

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slimjim

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Hey everybody, I'm new here and just wanna start off by saying that you guys have a great community going. I've found ALOT of good information reading through threads for hours and hours. I love music and am just starting to dabble in recording and audio engineering.(i have a question that i will ask shortly) This is my set up:

MacBook Pro 13"
REAPER/TRACKTION3/GARAGEBAND DAW's
KRK Rockit 5 Monitors
MACKIE ONYX 1402 Mixer
MACKIE ONYX Blackbird
RODE NT1A Condenser Mic
Sterling Audio ST31 Condenser Mic
SHURE SM48 Dynamic Mic
Yamaha DGX230 MIDI Keyboard

So far I'm pretty happy with how my set up is coming along, at least on paper. BUT theres a problem. When recording, either with my guitar or vocals into the interface, the waveform is soooo tiny inside the DAW. Even with the levels nearly maxed out on the interface, for some reason its not making much of an impression on the track inside the DAW. Any idea what could cause this? The Blackbird Control mixer software that comes with the interface shows it registering good levels. But still next to NO waveform to work with inside the program of choice.COuld i have a defective interface? Or maybe bad mics or cables? My second problem, for anyone who has a Blackbird and uses the Blackbird Control software, when inside the software mixer with interface turned on with guitar or mics plugged in and registering levels on the software, I can't seem to get the faders in the software to do anything..? I mean literally ill drag them all the way up or down and it does absolutely NOTHING to the sound I'm hearing. Does it only work while recording or maybe after recording? or something like that? Cause Pre Recording, just establishing good levels, the faders are absolutely useless which i thought was strange and couldn't be the case but Ive messed around with it quite a bit with no success what-so-ever.

I hope that someone will read this and have some input. I thank every reader for their time and i hope that I can start establishing some relationships in this forum that can help me become the best audio engineer that i can possibly be. I just got an internship at a radio station that is a part of NPR. Im super excited and so stoked to learn from them, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity. Between that and my personal endeavors, i believe i can develop this into a career. Atleast that is my hope. Who else is passionate about music/home recording/audio engineering?!??!?!?! LETS HEAR FROM YOU!!!
 
What level are you tracking at - what are the dB meters showing? You can expand your views to show larger waveforms (for editing).
 
Yeah, sounds to me like more of a "view" problem than a level problem.
 
thanks for commenting guys. Well Ive tried zooming in and theres nothing to zoom in on. meaning its just zooming into a thin line so it still doesn't show much at all. I always track at -18db. in this case the meters on the software that came with the blackbird are going just below the red point. So levels seem to be fine. I just tried again to see about the view cause that is a good idea. but no success.
 
If you're tracking at -18dB not sure why the other meters would be showing just below redline, but anyway, if you're not seeing any waveform in our DAW< yu are not recording the actual signal, maybe just getting bleed - are you sure you have the right interface inputs routed to your DAW inputs? That's happened to me before - I had switched from rear inputs 3 and 4 to front input 1, but didn't change the DAW track routing.
 
I said after the -18db comment that 'in this case, the meters are just under the red point" meaning that, pertaining to this problem I'm not using the -18 level at this time. But anyway, it is recording because the other strange thing is that when i monitor the track in playback its a solid recording. Loud, crisp and low noise just how i want it. yet still, hardly any waveform to speak of. IDK whats going on. i just used LOGIC and the waveforms and levels and everything are fine. so for some reason it was just Garageband and reaper?? idk.. Also the input selection in the DAW is always the first point i check when trouble shooting so that wasn't the issue, which is obvious now knowing that the recording comes out just fine... the only problem being no wave form which makes editing and manipulating a little more difficult than it has to be. Problem not solved but problem is diffused and bypassed. I've been wanting to get LOGIC for a while and this was a perfect excuse to make the switch. Now if only i could figure out why the faders in Blackbird Control Software make no impact on the output or input levels of my audio. anyway thanks for the help. even the somewhat backhanded condescending comment, picking apart my words to find anything you can to overt your superiority over me with the -18db and LED meter clipping point comment.
 
Just to keep going with the "view" theory.....In REAPER, there are 2 "View" controls. You can hit the "+" on the right side of the screen to expeand the view. But this just makes the tracks wider, it doesn't make the wave-form bigger. If you want to see a bigger wave, you have to hold down SHIFT while pressing the UP arrow.
 
Ok, if the sound is there, then it has to do with your view settings.
 
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