Problem with recording volume

[KevinTran]

I've got my wireless SM58 hooked up via XLR to my mixer. Got the mixer hooked up to the sound card from "Tape Out" (R/L) to LINE IN (with Y-connector). Phantom power tried ON and OFF.

1. Why would the volume be so low when recording (both voice and music) from the mixer.

2. Do you lose stereo going from the mixer to a single input line into the sound card?

3. Do the thin 1/8" connector wires degrade the quality and volume of the sound it is transporting from mixer to sound card?

One article says <<... the easiest way to use a mic channel for feeding a soundcard is to turn its fader fully down and then use the pre-fade send control to send the mic signal to the mixer's pre-fade output jack. This is normally used to set up monitor mixes, but in the smaller studio it can be fed directly into the soundcard input as a means of routing the mic signal separately. Essentially, the mic signal goes through the mixer channel, via the pre-fade send and out of the pre-fade send jack without interacting with anything else the mixer may be doing, almost as though it were going through a separate piece of hardware. >>

Is he referring to the PFL on my mixer (assuming prefade line)? No manual, gotta guess at alot of this stuff. Then my PFL Out line is a 1/4" output.

Is there a cable made that goes 1/4" out and 1/8" in?

 

[AlChuck]

1. Why would the volume be so low when recording (both voice and music) from the mixer.

Did you adjust the input level on the bleeding Audigy?

2. Do you lose stereo going from the mixer to a single input line into the sound card?

Depends. Here's the deal -- the 1/8" Line In on the soundcard is a stereo jack. You need a stereo 1/8" plug wired to a L and R source as the conduit for your signals.

If you have, say, a cable with a pair of RCA plugs on one end wired to a single /8" stereo plug, then one RCA signal will come out the tip of the 1/8", the other out of the sleeve. These will be shown as the L and R inputs on the card.

But when you record from a mic you have a monoaural signal. What you should do is send the signal out one or the other side, not both, and record it to a mono track, using the apporiate L or R side of the soundcard's Line In. Then you use the recording software's Pan control to place the track wherever you want in the stereo image on playback.

Besides, a stereo recording from your mono mic will not be a true stereo image, it will just be two identical copies, one L and one R, and thereby occupy twice the storage space on the hard drive for nothing.

3. Do the thin 1/8" connector wires degrade the quality and volume of the sound it is transporting from mixer to sound card?

Naaah, I think that would be negligible at the worst...

 

[KevinTran]

Did you adjust the input level on the bleeding Audigy?

What's "bleeding Audigy" mean? I adjusted the level for the sound cards LINE IN.

I appreciate your reply, BTW. Can you clear up my PFL confusion?

 

[KevinTran]

Mixer

Can someone point me to where I can learn what all the gadgets on my mixer can do?

Gain
Pre
Post
Aux 1, 2, 3, 4
High Z
Low Z
PFL Out
Headphone/PFL (why together)
etcetera

 

[moskus]

Re: Mixer

Can someone point me to where I can learn what all the gadgets on my mixer can do?

Gain
Pre
Post
Aux 1, 2, 3, 4
High Z
Low Z
PFL Out
Headphone/PFL (why together)
etcetera

A great place to start would be the manual...

 

[KevinTran]

Re: Re: Mixer

A great place to start would be the manual...

All my equipment was inherited from my dad a couple of years ago. No manuals for any of it. It's a great suggestion otherwise.

 

[AlChuck]

Many manufacturers of recording equipment, especially hardware, have manuals available on the internet.

For those that don't, and for a general education about recording, everyone here likes the huge compendium of links at http://www.studiocovers.com/

What's "bleeding Audigy" mean?

Sorry, I slipped into my fake British, Monty Python-influenced persona...

Returning to my New York roots, a translation might be, "Did you fuckin' adjust the fuckin' input level on the fuckin' Audigy?"

 

[KevinTran]

Sorry, I slipped into my fake British, Monty Python-influenced persona...

Returning to my New York roots, a translation might be, "Did you fuckin' adjust the fuckin' input level on the fuckin' Audigy?"

Well then, with my native Asian tongue:

Yes, me do sound revel good arleddy. You no need say bad rangwage rike dat. New York peeples so lude, or is it rude???

 

[Abyyss]

Sorry, I slipped into my fake British, Monty Python-influenced persona...

Returning to my New York roots, a translation might be, "Did you fuckin' adjust the fuckin' input level on the fuckin' Audigy?"

You have a far too stereotypical image of us - nowadays we're more likley to say ya' "New York" version.

 

[AlChuck]

Kevin,

Excuse my language. I guess you can fuckin' take the kid outta fuckin' New York, but ya can't take the fuckin' New York outta the fuckin' kid...

Abyss,

Except it would be "fookin'..."

 

[Abyyss]

^

Depends on the accent man, ova in yorkshire we pronounce it exactly the same as you with a sort of laut accent as if we're always drunk (well some people do - not me, I sound nice when I talk ) - ova in the posher parts of the south they'll pron. it different - we don't really have one accent; there are loads all ova the place.

 

[AlChuck]

Kind of like over here...