This is Total Aggravation

[freeme1212]

ok im obviously a newb i i dont know how to do this but my motu 828mkll is aacting up or maybe its my mic preamp im not sure. when i record vocals it is not clear at alll its distorting!!! i know i have to turn something down but i tried all of this. turning down the mic volume
,gain i dont know what to doanymore
i was told i could call daddys and have someone come over and configure everything to its best settings. i doubht it and im not going to call to embaress my self. is there any place i could call and someone could come and show me the ropes just to get me started.? im so lost guys. and i really want to get farther into my music

 

[Phyl]

Sounds like you're set up as follows...

Microphone into mic preamp
Mic preamp into Motu
Motu into the computer

If this isn't the set up, let us know exactly what the signal path is.

(1) Make sure the output of the preamp is not clipping. Start with the gain set midway, and if the preamp has a headphone jack, talk/sing into the mic and listen to see if there is distortion. If there isn't a headphone jack, look at the input meters on your Motu and make sure they aren't maxing out or in the red zone. If your hear distortion, or see meters go into the red, turn down the preamp gain and try again. The meters should stay green with occassional peaks in the yellow.

(2) Make sure the gain in your recording software isn't turned up too high. Open the program, arm a track, and talk/sing into the microphone while watching the program's meters to make sure you aren't overloading. If you are, turn down the gain inside the program.


(3) If you still hear distortion, there are a couple of things that might be going on. The microphone may be distorting because you're singing too close, or too loud. The microphone may also be bad - try a different one. Finally, it might not be distortion you're hearing, you might have a problem with the recording software and it's latency or buffer size settings.

I'm sure I missed something, but hopefully this gives you a start. If you do call Daddys, you wouldn't be the first person to pay for some help. I understand the frustration, but there is no way around the learning curve.

 

[tewfus]

I don't know that you did miss anything, that's a pretty solid walkthrough and a good way to start.

 

[freeme1212]

thank you so much that helped alot now just for the learning about eQ an compression i wanna make my song sound great. is there any videos on sonar 8 that teach you the basics??

 

[Phyl]

Didn't see anything specific for SONAR 8, but found a SONAR 7 video.

http://books-videos-music.musicians...00302&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=227726387

This will focus on how SONAR operates, but isn't going to teach you generic stuff about eq and compression. For that I would either buy a basic book on recording, or do web searches. Sites like tweakheadz are good at explaining the basic stuff.

The first book I ever bought was Home Recording for Dummies. There are a bunch of them out there - check your local library as well.