Lack of volume for the mics

[jingleheimer]

Alright im going to be short about this. I i plug my mics into my eurotrack Ub1204 then i run the mixer through a usb converter to my computer to record to cakewalk. The problem is i cant get enough volume out of my mics with out cranking the gain and i dont want to do that cause of room noise. can anybody help me? Please.

 

[dwillis45]

Some possible solutions/suggestions: (1) Add a noise gate to your setup; (2) Identify the cause of the room noise (AC, computer fan, etc.) and try to remedy the source; (3) Try switching to a dyanmic mic or a small condenser mic which may pickup less room noise; Bybass your mixer and go directly through the USB unit if it has a preamp; and (4) Try looking at a mixer with a better signal to noise ratio.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Also, what kind of mics are you using? Are they condesers that require phantom power?

G.

 

[jingleheimer]

i am not using any condenser mics so i dont have to use my phantom power. i am faily new at this so would you suggest a condenser if i wanted a closely miced sound with little natural reverb

 

[pdadda]

What mics are you using exactly? The pre's on the UB1204 kinda blow. You can't crank the gain very high before you start hearing the pre. And you need a lot more gain to power dynamic mics.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

would you suggest a condenser if i wanted a closely miced sound with little natural reverb

A closely miked sound of what? And at what budget? Any condensor or dynamic can be used to close mic just about anything, but they each have their pluses and minuses depending on instrument, and they can range in price anywhere for under a hundred bucks to a few thousand. Once you can provide those answers, you might find the most takers to that question with those specifics in the Microphones forum.

Not to mention that "close miking" and "natural reverb" are almost mutually exclusive. Usually when one close mikes an instrument, part or all of the reason is to eliminate bleed and natural room reverb and get just the direct sound of the miked instrument or amplifier exclusively.

G.

 

[jingleheimer]

Well im primarily micing an alverez acoustic guitar. the sound i am trying to achieve is only the sound of the guitar with as little room noise as possible. as far as the room noise goes i have a nice quiet room where you cant hear the cpu fan or any of that kind of stuff. i am mostly using a couple of old shure mics one a PE57 another is PE585 and 2 old concords as well as a shure Pg58 so as you can see i dont have the best microphones to work with and as for my budget i can spend probably about 250 of recording stuff so any suggestions on mics that would be decent for this would be greatly helpful. again thanks for all of the help.

 

[dmc777]

what kind of room noise are you getting? Echoes?

 

[jingleheimer]

i am mostly getting echoes as far as noises but the real problem is just all the "space" i can hear on the track. i think this can probably be solved with a different room so im going to experiment alittle with that but thanks again for all the info its helped

 

[Farview]

Play the guitar louder. Put the mics within 6 inches of the guitar and only use 2. If you have too many mics, you can easily get phase problems. Most of the time, I only use one mic on an acoustic guitar depending on what else is in the mix.

 

[treymonfauntre]

lots of people prefer a small diaphragm condenser or 2 on acoustic guitar. i used that $99 "recording package" of an mxl 990 and a 991 on my acoustic guitar and it sounded really nice. with $150 you could get a pretty decent used soundcraft mixer on ebay. hell i just got an 8 channel one off ebay for that much!

 

[dmc777]

I'm pretty sure it's just the room. If it's echoing alot than there's probably too many sounds bouncing around. You need to deaden it or change rooms. I was having the same problem recording in my room. I was getting way too many reflections so I went into the living room where it sounded much better. I just purchased the mxl 990/993 140.00 to record my acoustic guitar and they sound pretty nice. Try a different room.

 

[jingleheimer]

hey thanks guys for all the info i pretty much just changed rooms and added some deadning matterials and that took care of most of the problems

 

[Monkey Allen]

Is that really the case with a room? Is it a myth about too much room reverberation? I have a room with concrete floors, no carpet and bare walls. It even feels sterile to do anything in...and it's my bedroom, you'd think I could make it a bit more homely. My desk chair is squashed against a wall, I have no mic stands and have to balance shit on my bed. Everytime I play my guitar I bump it into a wall. No wonder I don't ever get around to bothering to record anything.

 

[fivesixonesk8er]

Im not sure if anyone else said this, but try using a Mic Preamp. A mic preamp is essentially designed to amplify weak signals before they enter the main gain stage of say a mixer or sound card.

 

[Farview]

Im not sure if anyone else said this, but try using a Mic Preamp. A mic preamp is essentially designed to amplify weak signals before they enter the main gain stage of say a mixer or sound card.

A mic preamp is designed to amplify mic level signals to line level signals. The mic preamps in his mixer will do that.