recording solo guitar-setting levels?

[anton]

Hey Everyone,

I have a Digidesign Mbox, Pro Tools, and two MXL 603's. My setup is just record myself playing my solo instrumental guitar arrangements. I play fingerstyle and have a pretty soft attack.

I have been experimenting with mic placement and the sound quality is getting better. However, my main problem is i can't get the levels high enough. Everything sound fine through my headphones, but i have the gain on the Mbox about 2/3 the way up, the volume fader on the track at the default 0.0, and the master fader at +0.3. Like i said, volume sound fine through my headphones, but i know when i go to mix, i will want it louder and i wont much room cause the volume is already pretty high.

Maybe some of you can offer some tips you use when recording a solo guitar with a soft attack. I figured i could crank the Gain up some more, but if i crank it to high then you start hearing white noise, i assume from the mics.

I wish i could give some sort of numerical value as to the level of the volume meters during playback, but i can't figure out how to do that.

I was thinking a preamp, such as the DMP3, might let me increase the gain some more before the signal enters the Mbox.


If any of you all more experienced people can offer advice let me know.




anton

 

[Jeyan]

I dont know much about Digidesign Mbox (hope it has one mic input and 1 direct input) you may be having an impedence problem. Go through a direct box, this will let you cut the signal real hot. You could get one from $20 to $150. Some DI even comes with a preamp. So give it a try.