Mic recording problem

[Uli87]

I'm recording instrumental rock, I'm using an mbox 2 mini and a sennhiser e609 Mic
On my amp. The interface claims to have 48v phantom power but the recording sounds too low. When I test the sound, the sound meter is really low. Do I need a pre amp or could it be something else?
If so, is a small preamp best or a mixer?

 

[John Willett]

The e609 is a dynamic mic. and does not need phantom power - so you can switch that off if you want.

A dynamic mic. has a lot lower output than a condenser mic., so it would be normal for the meter to read low compared to a condenser mic.

Just turn up the recording level.

 

[mjbphotos]

'Low' as in how low? What DAW are you using? You should be tracking from -18dB to -12dB.

 

[Dags]

I'm recording instrumental rock, I'm using an mbox 2 mini and a sennhiser e609 Mic
On my amp. The interface claims to have 48v phantom power but the recording sounds too low. When I test the sound, the sound meter is really low. Do I need a pre amp or could it be something else?
If so, is a small preamp best or a mixer?

Hi there

As John W said, there is no need for phantom power for your particular mic.
All mics needs to have their signal boosted by a preamp in order to make low level signals fall into the 'sweet' area for recording (unless you're recording a really loud instrument or noise which doesn't need much boosting)
If you crank up the gain on the mbox preamp to get the signal hot enough to record and it adds too much noise (usually noticeable as a hiss from the gain circuitry) you'll probably need to get some kind of external preamp to boost the signal before it goes into the mbox.
Whether you purchase a dedicated preamp unit (single or multiple) or a mixer with built-in mic preamps depends on whether you need to have multiple signals being routed to or from the computer simultaneously.
If you want to have signals from more mics than there are inputs on the mbox being recorded at the same time, you'll need a mixing desk to plug the mics into and you can then mix the level of those signals before they get recorded as a stereo track to your computer via the mbox.
(Or if you're like me and have too many keyboards and sound modules that you want to listen to all at the same time you'll need a mixing desk)

If you'll only ever need to record one or two mics at a time, then maybe a good quality mono or two channel preamp is the way to go.

Dags