My mic records too low. What to do?

[Capriseyhaze]

Hi all im new to this site so take it easy on me lol. Well im running pro tools 7.4 le on my mac. I have the 10/14 audio interface and a large diafram condencer mic. But everytime i record, the vocals come out extra low. On the front of the interface there is a volume toggel for the mic, but only seems to turn the mic up in the head phones. On my mic there are two switches, one that has a straight line then an arched line and one that says 0db on one side and 10db on the other side. I mess around with those to but i dont know what they mean so its kind of pointless. I know there is some easy explanation for this, but i am too much of a noob to figure it out. I only record hiphop and r&b so i only use audio tracks no instruments. Can somebody please help me with this? Thanks in advance.

 

[barry_coheed]

I had the same problem with my digi 002 I couldn't get loud tracks no matter what, mic placement, equalizing, and loads of compression. I found out the mic pre-amps and analog/digital conversion was low quality. So I upgraded to a focusrite 4 ch. pre $2000.00 and the optional a/d card $800.00 they haven't come in yet so I'm still waiting to see but with your case I'd invest in a cheap good pre-amp the ART Gold tube pre-amp is good and will give you some extra head room unless the problem is else where, I'm not familiar with the 10/14 interface i have a m-box 2 though and I get some alright levels with a shure ksm 27 condenser mic. by the way the 0db and -10db switch is for cutting 10db when recording very loud sounds ex. drums I think. And the flat line and curved line are eq roll off switches think of the flat line like a eq chart low freqs at the back and highs in the front when you use the switch at the one thats curved at the back your rolling off low freqs if low freqs are unwanted with whatever your recording. I'm kinda new at this too but I think thats right.

 

[bennychico11]

are you saying that the volume meters in Pro Tools aren't going very high...or that they just SOUND low when played back in comparison to another track (ie. a drum loop or something).