Manslick
Road
Check your drivers. Make sure you have the correct ones. Check your settings in windows to be sure that there’s nothing affecting the output or monitoring.
The sound coming out of my condenser microphone is very quiet and weak if someone can help me I will appreciate
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greefus243
New member
The drivers and firmware are updated and in windows I don't know where to check like in sound settings when the interface is plugged everything is set to the interface the input and output and everything so is there something to check on windows that might affect it ?
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
The recordings are not low. The problem is almost certainly on the playback side of the signal chain.
Manslick
Road
The audio settings are in Windows Settings.
It’s complicated to explain here. Lots of possibilities.
Trying googling Windows sound settings or even using ChatGPT.
rob aylestone
Moderator
I think we are all thinking the same thing - the mic is capturing what is going into it - please can we just hear the mic - no music. Mute the other channels and just let us hear the mic. It's recording OK, so it is what is happening afterwards - loads of things you could do, but just a snippet of mic only audio will let us comment on tone, and mic placement issues. they're sort of buried till then.
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greefus243
New member
Exactly so am lost because what could it be ? Everyone I see on the internet who a home studio with the same interface they just plug it to their computer and plug the mic and record so why mine is so complicated I even restarted my pc deleted everything but nothing for me my mic has a problem that's it I will just take the risk of buying a new one it been since September that I have this problem I tried everything like everything and it still giving me this low signal weak and thin pfff
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greefus243
New member
Okay I will try to do that but for me its not the mic placement at all like I said before I recorded in the past with some crappy mixer and the volume of my voice was loud and strong and normal not like these one and ironically the interfaces I have are supposed to be high end so I think my mic is just faulty
Eric V
Member at-large
Before you assume it's your mic, I think trying Rob's advice might be helpful. the reason your mic is probably ok, it seems to me, is you are getting plenty of signal in your DAW.
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greefus243
New member
Yes plenty of signal in the daw on the audio channel but when I listen it weak and it sounds like I was far away from the mic while i'm just there in front of it I think it might be defective but still can pick up low signal i don't know because I don't see what it can be at this point
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
How are your monitors connected? Pictures would help.
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greefus243
New member
By a trs cable that goes into the line output of the motu M4 interface I will do my best to take pics and show everything here
TalismanRich
Well-known member
I'm late getting back to you, but listening to your sample, there's nothing low about it. The handclaps are peaking about -4.6dBFS. The LUFS was -15 which is not bad at all. You really can't compare it to your friend's track as his has more instrumentation going on and a better mix. The claps you are using are overriding everything. Drop those down by at least 10dB and you can bring up everything else. (I personally despise those fake handclaps... they are SO overused!) You can put a limiter on that track... anything to bring it more in line with the rest of the track.
Volume is relative, and can be adjusted both going in and once it's in the computer. Putting the gain knob at 12:00 is meaningless, as microphones all have different sensitivities. The criteria needs to be where do you get a proper level in the DAW. If it's peaking at -30 on the scale, you simply increase the gain knob. Bring it up until you are getting the first glimmer of overload on the front meters and then back it down.
Now, when you mix, get a proper balance and if needed, at the end you can boost the total level until it peaks at around -1 or 2dBFS. FWIW, this is your file, with a heavy limiter to tame the peaks, then boosted. I can't change the mix, but it's not a microphone issue.
Now my question... if you fire up MediaPlayer or Audacity and play a commercial track from a CD is the volume low? Was your friend's track low? If both of those are yes, then you either have an issue with the Motu, or the way it is connected. Do your monitors have balanced inputs, as in going from the TRS output of the Motu into XLR inputs, or are you going into a 1/4" unbalanced connection. If the monitor input is unbalanced, you should be using an RCA to 1/4" connection. I don't see a mention of the monitor type.
Do your tracks sound low when you use headphones? With almost any headphones you should be able to get very loud.
Volume is relative, and can be adjusted both going in and once it's in the computer. Putting the gain knob at 12:00 is meaningless, as microphones all have different sensitivities. The criteria needs to be where do you get a proper level in the DAW. If it's peaking at -30 on the scale, you simply increase the gain knob. Bring it up until you are getting the first glimmer of overload on the front meters and then back it down.
Now, when you mix, get a proper balance and if needed, at the end you can boost the total level until it peaks at around -1 or 2dBFS. FWIW, this is your file, with a heavy limiter to tame the peaks, then boosted. I can't change the mix, but it's not a microphone issue.
Now my question... if you fire up MediaPlayer or Audacity and play a commercial track from a CD is the volume low? Was your friend's track low? If both of those are yes, then you either have an issue with the Motu, or the way it is connected. Do your monitors have balanced inputs, as in going from the TRS output of the Motu into XLR inputs, or are you going into a 1/4" unbalanced connection. If the monitor input is unbalanced, you should be using an RCA to 1/4" connection. I don't see a mention of the monitor type.
Do your tracks sound low when you use headphones? With almost any headphones you should be able to get very loud.
Manslick
Road
Do you have passive monitors?
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greefus243
New member
Thanks for replying okay I read everything you said but I think I have to explain what bothers me here the things is not that the track is low but only my voice it not only low but it weak it sounds unpowered when I record and you can't mix a voice that sound like that add because I tried to mix it like that and it sounds really bad because before even mixing my voice in the microphone already sound weak and low quality as I said I had a mixer before a bad one with the se X1 and the volume on it sounded loud before mixing then when I mixed I got it in a good level but with this mic it sounds really weak and the interfaces am using cannot sound like that you can listen to my friends song his voice sound loud then he can mix properly and when I try to put the gain way up it sound distorted noisy and muffled its like my mic is just underpowered or faulty I don't know
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greefus243
New member
What does it mean please ? I mean my studio monitors sounds perfectly fine loud and clear on both of it
rob aylestone
Moderator
Please - deleting things is a really silly problem solver. My guess is that you are expecting a certain sound and not getting it. You can have a technically correct amount of signal, and yet it is thin, weedy, lacking power, lacking 'tone' and just not a contemporary sound. In most cases, that is not a mic fault at all. It is capturing what the sound really was like with your mouth at position A, the mic at position B, in a space with either reflective or dead acoustics. We don't know, what level you are - forgive me, but your comments suggest beginner? Some microphones like to work almost on your lips, and sound big and powerful. Others are designed to be used further away. Others, often the small diaphragm condensers, are designed to make say, and acoustic guitar sound wonderful 6" away from them. Others are great suspended over an orchestra. Some need driving hard, others are super sensitive. The other thing of course, is that some voices need certain mic types, other voices sound great on anything.
We need to hear your voice - singing or speaking in your space. No instruments getting in the way. Tracks have already been balanced and blended. We need the sound of your recording - so many of us can then pile in with suggestions, because we have all been in the same place. Sometimes a voice an a certain mic hate each other, and fight - but to use an example might help. The classic dynamic Shure SM58 is so well known, it's probably the most well known live mic ever. Most people use them very close. Some people use them for recording. move them from on your lips to 6" away and warm intimate voices become thin and very lacking. That 6" to touching change the sound completely. Most cardioid mics do this. A few don't - EV RE20 and SM7B are two well known ones where distance has less impact - the RE20 probably being least impacted by distance. AKG do the D222 - great for speech, as distance doesn't matter that much to it - but unlike the RE20, is NOT a warm sounding mic - just truthful.
Please find us a sample of just voice.
We need to hear your voice - singing or speaking in your space. No instruments getting in the way. Tracks have already been balanced and blended. We need the sound of your recording - so many of us can then pile in with suggestions, because we have all been in the same place. Sometimes a voice an a certain mic hate each other, and fight - but to use an example might help. The classic dynamic Shure SM58 is so well known, it's probably the most well known live mic ever. Most people use them very close. Some people use them for recording. move them from on your lips to 6" away and warm intimate voices become thin and very lacking. That 6" to touching change the sound completely. Most cardioid mics do this. A few don't - EV RE20 and SM7B are two well known ones where distance has less impact - the RE20 probably being least impacted by distance. AKG do the D222 - great for speech, as distance doesn't matter that much to it - but unlike the RE20, is NOT a warm sounding mic - just truthful.
Please find us a sample of just voice.
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greefus243
New member
Thanks for responding,am not eliminating things a lot of people here are telling me to do what I already tried longtime ago like switching on phantom power checking this and that i already done all that that's why I'm telling them that the problem is not that if someone tells me now to try something I didn't try yet then i won't eliminate that and secondly you said that am expecting a certain sound and yes of course this is why i bought all this setup it's like buying an iPhone 17 for the quality of the camera that you saw on a lot of people that uses it and when you get it on your iPhone the camera is blurry it's normal to complain about it i guess
but anyway i will do my best to put a sample without the music on top but yhe only thing i really want to do is to try another mic
Manslick
Road
Passive monitors require an amplifier. Active monitors have the amplifier built in to each monitor.
What is the make and model of your monitors?
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greefus243
New member
Oh okay I see mine is active seen I don't have an amp with it
rob aylestone
Moderator
No point buying another until you are happy with how your system works. Microphone faults are VERY rare, and usually are dead - as a description. Your phone is a good example - it really is like somebody complaining their phone makes them look really small and far away, when the problem was they were small and far away, and getting closer or discovering how to zoom was not tried? Buying another phone would not solve it.
