Is it the mic?

E

electricdread

New member
This is my first time doing home recordings so please bare with me.
I am trying to record my song with the fostex mr-8. I am using the zoom mrt-3 drum machine. The drum machine sounds great, but the guitar are REAL LOW. On the track level display the drum machine is showing twice as much as the guitar. I have the amp on a chair and mic and mic stand about 4 inches in fron of the amp. I am using a unidirectional mic. I have a sneaking suspicion That the mic is the problem. It is a dynamic that was given to me a a friend. I think it has seen better days.Is it the microphone? Any suggestions?
Thanks
 
Your question is kinda like saying "I seem to use too much gas when I drive -- my car's blue -- do you think it's my car that's the problem?"

Telling us what KIND of mic it is and what mic pre you're using it with *might* be helpful....
 
Ok.SORRY......be gentle please.....I know very little about doing home recordings and even less about mics! Ok, it is a Realistic Highball dynamic microphone unidirectional.
 
Well - it's definitely not a great mic - and it *could* be the issue. How high do you have the gain up on the preamp (ie - the TRIM controls on the MR-8)?
 
The trims are there to provide gain for low-level signals.... that mic may not be a very "hot" mic, so you may need a lot of gain from the trim-pots to get a usable signal level (at the expense of increased noise).... if you have to turn it up a lot and the noise becomes too apparent, then you should probably upgrade to at least a Shure SM57 or 58 mic....

From what I recall of most Radio Shack mics, they generally have high self-noise, very low output, and generally sound pretty hideous -- so even if you do get enough gain from the Trims, you may want to upgrade anyways!
 
I don't mean to disagree with anyone but my experience with Radio Shack pieces of s*** have been a little different. While I agree that the mics suck, I found the output to be rather high. It's just that they send a crappy but LOUD signal.

I think your real problem with levels starts with the MR-8. Check the level on the unit. You can do this by pressing the buttons for the individual tracks and then pressing the record button WITHOUT pressing play. Look at the peak reading for the drum machine and then look at the level for the guitar as you play. Are they the same? Chances are you are making the same mistake that I made when I first got started. Get your pre-amp cranked up.

When you said that you had no meters, it was major tip-off. The meters are in the MR-8. Use them. Get the Guitar to where it's sounding good and then bring up the drum machine level. That's what the slide bars are for. Fostex tells you that you should have the slides at a certain level but that is a starting point. I don't know what the output of the drum machine is but if it's direct and not acoustic (sorry, I don'e use a drum machine) that necessitates a lower level as a direct output is generally rather high.

I think your problems are more recorder related and this site has a good Fostex user forum. If I were you, I'd use it if you have more questions about the MR-8.

Then I'd use those Radio Shack mics as a fishing weight and go catch a decent mic. :)

Hope this helps, Steve :cool:
 
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