M-Audio signal is too hot

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glennvalentine

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I've got an M-Audio AIR 192-8 for about two years and it works fine with a mic...mainly used it for podcasting and used another interface for recording music. However, I recently started recording guitar into the M-Audio and the signal is always hot when going into the instrument input even with the gain at zero. Any hard strumming moves me into the red on the interface. Pickups are passive humbuckers and it even happens if I use the line level as well...just not as bad.

It's fine with single coils but humbuckers from any of my guitars move me into the red. Any thoughts?
 
glennvalentine said:
I've got an M-Audio AIR 192-8 for about two years and it works fine with a mic...mainly used it for podcasting and used another interface for recording music. However, I recently started recording guitar into the M-Audio and the signal is always hot when going into the instrument input even with the gain at zero. Any hard strumming moves me into the red on the interface. Pickups are passive humbuckers and it even happens if I use the line level as well...just not as bad.

It's fine with single coils but humbuckers from any of my guitars move me into the red. Any thoughts?
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Not too important but what model guitar are you using? And....where do you set your guitar volume knob?

Also.....are you using any effects between the guitar and AI?
 
While I'm a bit surprised the LINE level input is getting overdriven by a pickup, the simplest "fix" for this would be to use a DI box with a pad switch on it. (Some of the early Focusrite interfaces were known for having very little headroom on the INST input, too.)

Radial makes ones with top components that can be driven over by a tank, but there are cheaper ones. I have both the Radial and this version, and for an electric guitar (especially at home or "tank-safe" venues), I'd go cheap...
www.guitarcenter.com

Livewire SPDI Passive Direct Box With Attenuation Pad | Guitar Center

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glennvalentine said:
I've got an M-Audio AIR 192-8 for about two years and it works fine with a mic...mainly used it for podcasting and used another interface for recording music. However, I recently started recording guitar into the M-Audio and the signal is always hot when going into the instrument input even with the gain at zero. Any hard strumming moves me into the red on the interface. Pickups are passive humbuckers and it even happens if I use the line level as well...just not as bad.

It's fine with single coils but humbuckers from any of my guitars move me into the red. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Are you are plugging into the 1/4" inputs? They are gain and impedance matched to a Guitar/Bass.
 
roll back the volume on the guitar then strum as loud as you can and make sure it doesn't clip. That will get you by for now.

I would use a DI box if it were me though.... I'm supersticious about leaving the guitar volume on 10 and would rather step it down with a PAD on a DI box
 
JamEZmusic said:
roll back the volume on the guitar then strum as loud as you can and make sure it doesn't clip. That will get you by for now.

I would use a DI box if it were me though.... I'm supersticious about leaving the guitar volume on 10 and would rather step it down with a PAD on a DI box
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Yeah I think I'm going to try a DI box since rolling the volume down has a pretty significant impact on the tone. I emailed M-Audio and they think it might be defective however I've read on quite a few posts here that pickups on the hotter side can peg most interfaces. It works fine with a mic so I'm not certain it's defective.
 
You must really have hot pickups. The M-Audio 192/8 instrument input is rated for +6.28dBu at 1MegOhm. That would be a peak voltage of 2.25V, which is really high for a passive guitar pickup. I've seen measurements of peak voltages for PAF style pickups and they are usually in the 300-750mV range.
 
The spec also details the guitar input maximum level and it’s huge! I wonder if there is some kind of short on the combo input that is linking the line input to the mic input? Does the mic pad button do anything? It’s also unlikely to be the same on both channels as a fault? It’s also the first product I have ever seen with midi in and out not on DINs.
 
You can probably get away with using ANY stompbox pedal that doesn't have direct-through when not activated. I know this was a problem for some Line 6 guitar boxes when used with active pickups. The pedal acts as a buffer.
 
Thanks for the all the info guys. I ended up buying another interface (not M-Audio) and it's fine now. Must be a faulty unit. Little jerked since though it's 2 years old and out of warranty, it's virtually unused. I teach physics and run an after school recording program. We're purchasing all new interfaces next year so it won't be M-Audio for sure.

Thanks for your help guys.
 
glennvalentine said:
Thanks for the all the info guys. I ended up buying another interface (not M-Audio) and it's fine now. Must be a faulty unit. Little jerked since though it's 2 years old and out of warranty, it's virtually unused. I teach physics and run an after school recording program. We're purchasing all new interfaces next year so it won't be M-Audio for sure.

Thanks for your help guys.
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I had a 4-ch M-Audio (C-600 IIRC) as my 2nd interface - must be over 10 years ago? - and it had one input go bad just short of 2 years - fortunately I'd bought it from Sweetwater and they actually repaired it. It failed again after another year, so I've kind of written them off, though they've likely addressed some of the problems. (Heat management was what I suspected.)

FWIW, I had a Focusrite for many years with no problem. Now I have a Steinberg because I updated the Mac and lost the FireWire port and that was the only one I could find (Pandemic supply chain constraints) with 4-ch mic + line inputs at a reasonable price. It's been fine for almost 3 years, and it only gets powered down once or twice a year when we go away for a month or so.
 
keith.rogers said:
I had a 4-ch M-Audio (C-600 IIRC) as my 2nd interface - must be over 10 years ago? - and it had one input go bad just short of 2 years - fortunately I'd bought it from Sweetwater and they actually repaired it. It failed again after another year, so I've kind of written them off, though they've likely addressed some of the problems. (Heat management was what I suspected.)

FWIW, I had a Focusrite for many years with no problem. Now I have a Steinberg because I updated the Mac and lost the FireWire port and that was the only one I could find (Pandemic supply chain constraints) with 4-ch mic + line inputs at a reasonable price. It's been fine for almost 3 years, and it only gets powered down once or twice a year when we go away for a month or so.
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Yeah I bought a Focusrite and all is good. I have always used M-Audio but not any more. My school is about to invest in an entire classroom with 28 workstations for an after school music program. Guess which brand we will be purchasing?
 
The M-Audio 2496 was our first 'proper' audio interface, coupled with a Xenyx 802 mixer* and later an A&H zed10 it gave excellent results recording son's guitar amps and low latency with Cubase ESS6. Later we got an M-A Fast track Pro. A serviceable interface, crap pre amps but then they all were back then! FTPro went to France with son and he made good use of it. Then I took advantage of the free Win 10 upgrade. Hated it! Instantly rolled back to W7 and found most of the software for the 2496 cards was lost. "No matter" thinks I, "M-A will help me out" did they buggery! They had by then been swallowed up by Avid and just finding the drivers was the task of Heracles. Old, original software? No hope.

M-Audio once figured large in the technical audio press. No longer.

*Still going! Runs 24/7 in a bedroom amping up two mics in the garden.

Dave.
 
If he's swapped it for a different one and that's fine, it really has to be a fault - a shame really!
 
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