The sound coming out of my condenser microphone is very quiet and weak if someone can help me I will appreciate

[greefus243]

EDIT:Thanks everyone for trying to help me this problem is so frustrating I have been struggling for a long time to save money for this studio setup and I was not expecting this to happen I don't know maybe I will just save to buy a new microphone I considerer getting the at 2020 so if I do that I will give an update here

Hello everyone I'm new here.. I will try to explain the problem I have with all the details possible. So I make music for years now it's my passion and in 2022 I decided to build a home studio I bought an SE x1A condenser microphone then i started buying the other equipments step by step studio monitors,headphones,etc the last thing to buy was the audio interface and I didnt want to buy a random one no i searched and saw the motu m2 i listened to the quality of it i liked it so I bought it in September 2025 but this is what happened when i set everything up and tried to record my voice is very low as if i was recording through the laptop mic while the input and output was all motu m2 so tried everything i could i even restarted windows but same problem so i returned the m2 and they gave me the motu m4 i told them to test the M4 before delivering to me and they did cause the package was opened and they said everything is fine with it so i plugged the microphone and the same problem again my voice is low and weak through my se X1A i even tried it on a roland quad capture interface i have the same problem persist so i just want to ask do you think my condenser mic is faulty? Since I bought it in 2022 and never used it it was in my suitcase since then cause I was waiting to buy the other gears.. because now I don't know what to do I did everything phantom power is on I'm using a new stagg XLR cable everything is fine except that my voice is really low and weak even with the gain turned up and in the sound system when I talk I see the mic input signal perfectly even in the daw when I record it peaking normally but when I listen it really really low any help will be appreciated thanks.

 

[rob aylestone]

could you record it so we can hear what the weak signal sounds like?

 

[greefus243]

Hello everyone I'm new here.. I will try to explain the problem I have with all the details possible. So I make music for years now it's my passion and in 2022 I decided to build a home studio I bought an SE x1A condenser microphone then i started buying the other equipments step by step studio monitors,headphones,etc the last thing to buy was the audio interface and I didnt want to buy a random one no i searched and saw the motu m2 i listened to the quality of it i liked it so I bought it in September 2025 but this is what happened when i set everything up and tried to record my voice is very low as if i was recording through the laptop pc while the input and output was all motu m2 so tried everything i could i even restarted windows but same problem so i returned the m2 and they gave me the motu m4 i told them to test the M4 before they did cause the package was opened so i plugged and the same problem again my voice is low and weak through my se X1A i even tried it on a roland quad capture interface i have the same problem persist so i just want to ask do you think my condenser mic is faulty? Since I bought it in 2022 and never used it it was in my suitcase since then cause I was waiting to buy the other gears.. because now I don't know what to do I did everything phantom power is on I'm using a new stagg XLR cable everything is fine except that my voice is really low and weak even with the gain turned up and in the sound system when I talk I see the mic input signal perfectly even in the daw when I record it peaking normally but when I listen it really really low any help will be appreciated thanks.

could you record it so we can hear what the weak signal sounds like?

Thanks for replying I have the recordings here but when I try to attach it tells me that the format is not compatible

 

[TalismanRich]

Convert the sample to MP3, preferably 320kbps to keep things as high quality as possible.

 

[greefus243]

could you record it so we can hear what the weak signal sounds like?

I can send it by email if you want

 

[TalismanRich]

You can attach an MP3 file to the post. Click the Attach Files box and select the file. It will upload and attach it to the message, so others can listen and possibly come up with a solution.

 

[greefus243]

Convert the sample to MP3, preferably 320kbps to keep things as high quality as possible.

You can attach an MP3 file to the post. Click the Attach Files box and select the file. It will upload and attach it to the message, so others can listen and possibly come up with a solution.

Yes i managed to attach 2 files mine is the shortest one i was recording to test the mic as I did many times and the other one it's someone I know that uses the motu m2 if you listen you can clearly see that his recording is louder than mine and I want to tell you that I'm in front and close of the microphone and the gain on the preamp is at 12 o'clock but it still weak and low quality so it did this with 3 differents audio interface that are know for their powerful preamps gain level and dynamic range so I don't know if my microphone is faulty

 

[Eric V]

Yes i managed to attach 2 files mine is the shortest one i was recording to test the mic as I did many times and the other one it's someone I know that uses the motu m2 if you listen you can clearly see that his recording is louder than mine and I want to tell you that I'm in front and close of the microphone and the gain on the preamp is at 12 o'clock but it still weak and low quality so it did this with 3 differents audio interface that are know for their powerful preamps gain level and dynamic range so I don't know if my microphone is faulty

Is the phantom power on?

 

[greefus243]

Is the phantom power on?

Yes it is and in the sound settings the input and output is set as motu M4 and in the daw I use asio driver for motu in and out

 

[Eric V]

Can you try another condenser?

 

[greefus243]

Can you try another condenser?

That is the only thing I didn't try for now because I don't have money to buy it yet but I will try even with a cheap one first because the signal coming through with this mic is really low and weak as you can hear and the se x1a has in built pop filter i left it iny suitcase for almost 3 years maybe it got humidy or something i don't know

 

[rob aylestone]

It difficult to assess with the music swamping it. Can you check a few things for us. When you record, I assume you see the waveform of the audio - so a tracks with the music and the usual jaggly waveform and the same from the mic? Is the music a big waveform and the vocal a teeny one - or is the vocal waveform b ig, big just sounds thin - it would halep if you just speak into it, and see what the levels are like on the interface and the DAW meters? If you get time can we just hear a few words into the mic - and if you say "this is me 1" from the mic" or "this is me talking loud at 6"" - one thing. You say the input level was at 12 o'clock? At 12 vertical, what do the meters say on the interface? low just tickling the bottom, or a nice strong signal nearer the top but not quite at 0?

 

[Manslick]

In your OP you say that you’re getting a decent signal in your daw but there can be other things going on that could affect the output signal. For instance, the signal chain. Do you have anything like compression going on?

 

[greefus243]

It difficult to assess with the music swamping it. Can you check a few things for us. When you record, I assume you see the waveform of the audio - so a tracks with the music and the usual jaggly waveform and the same from the mic? Is the music a big waveform and the vocal a teeny one - or is the vocal waveform b ig, big just sounds thin - it would halep if you just speak into it, and see what the levels are like on the interface and the DAW meters? If you get time can we just hear a few words into the mic - and if you say "this is me 1" from the mic" or "this is me talking loud at 6"" - one thing. You say the input level was at 12 o'clock? At 12 vertical, what do the meters say on the interface? low just tickling the bottom, or a nice strong signal nearer the top but not quite at 0?

The waveform when I record it's big but when I play it's sound low and weak just as you can hear on the sample I sent and the meter also on the is at normal it shows that the levels are picking at green and sometimes almost yellow and when I play what I record it still sound low weak as if I wasn't even a condenser mic I even checked on the sound system if maybe by mistake I didn't put the interface as input but it was set as input and I want to remind that this problem persists with three different audio interface everything is fine the studio monitors works fine the usb cable is detected by the pc normally the headphones like everything is fine except that voice is weak and low as if the mic is unpowered and when i try to push the gain level really up it sound distorted like I was recording with a radio no dynamic range no stereo nothing so yeah I think I should just try with another mic cause at this point it's the only thing I didn't try yet

 

[greefus243]

In your OP you say that you’re getting a decent signal in your daw but there can be other things going on that could affect the output signal. For instance, the signal chain. Do you have anything like compression going on?

Nope nothing the thing I want to say is that an interface like a motu m2 or M4 with a condenser mic like a se x1a even with no effect on it should not sound that weak my audio is sounding weak on the go so like a radio effect on it i recorded with a crappy audio mixer long time ago with an SE X1 and the signal was stronger than this how can a motu M4 which has a preamp of 60db of gain and a dynamic range of 124 can sound so weak? It so frustrating when I think about how much money and time it took me save for this and just to get this bad result pffff

 

[Papanate]

Nope nothing the thing I want to say is that an interface like a motu m2 or M4 with a condenser mic like a se x1a even with no effect on it should not sound that weak my audio is sounding weak on the go so like a radio effect on it i recorded with a crappy audio mixer long time ago with an SE X1 and the signal was stronger than this how can a motu M4 which has a preamp of 60db of gain and a dynamic range of 124 can sound so weak? It so frustrating when I think about how much money and time it took me save for this and just to get this bad result pffff

From the Sound of it you have something dimming the channels output - without seeing it we can’t tell what that would be - can you post a screenshot of your channel - and settings that you are using?

 

[Slouching Raymond]

Just looking at the picture of the mic, it has 0db and -20db attenuation settings.
Is it set to 0db?

 

[Manslick]

Just looking at the picture of the mic, it has 0db and -20db attenuation settings.
Is it set to 0db?

Good catch

 

[greefus243]

From the Sound of it you have something dimming the channels output - without seeing it we can’t tell what that would be - can you post a screenshot of your channel - and settings that you are using?

Something dimming the channel output how ? Can you explain plz you mean dimming the channel output in daw ? I will post a picture tomorrow I don't know what can cause that because I just plug the XLR cable to the mic and audio interface then I plug the usb cable from the audio interface to the pc like that's how everybody in home studio plug their set up so I really don't know

 

[greefus243]

Just looking at the picture of the mic, it has 0db and -20db attenuation settings.
Is it set to 0db?

I thought about this too at first and the switch is at -0db if you see me signing up to this forum it's because i tried everything I could try i'm also in another forum a lot of people there also asked me these questions you guys are asking me.. my problem is to make sure if the microphone has a problem i don't have a problem buying a new mic I want to buy a at2020 to replace it but I'm just scared to buy another mic and get the same result because the problem was not the mic in fact.. am not rich to be spending money for nothing like this so that's why I really want to make sure it the mic the problem cause at this point I don't see what it could be