The Song Fight Bulletin Board

So I fired up my mixer and plugged in my condenser mic to record but found that my tracks in Cake Walk are peaking at weirdly low volumes on my mixer.

When I plug the headphones straight into the mixer and listen there's no peaking and the volume lights hardly go into the green section, but when I plug my headphones into the computer's headphone jack everything is all horrible and distorted.

Any ideas as to what could be happening?

Thanks!

Audio signals are transmitted in different base signal strengths depending on what you are transmitting them for. Basically, for transferring signals within a chain of consumer audio equipment, line level is used. On my mixer this is labeled as -10 dBV. Some things, like microphones, generate weaker signals (somewhere around -60 dBV), and for transmitting a signal to, for example, headphones or loudspeakers, a higher signal strength is used (my mixer says +4 dBu; note that dBV and dBu are not the same thing. +4 dBu seems to be about +1.78 dBV). This latter level is also used for professional audio equipment at least in the USA, according to Wikipedia.

Now, of course, if you route a line level signal into headphones everything will be really quiet. On the other hand, if you use a 'phones level signal into the line in jack(s) of an audio device, it will be way overpowered.
The solution is to find line out jacks on your mixer and use those instead (or check your sound interface's manual to see which input levels it can use and how to adjust things; my sound card can deal with anything up to roughly +6 dBV). The mixer may have a different kind of jacks for line outs (for example, the line outs on my mixer are cinch jacks); in that case you may need an adapter cable.

Before you do other troubleshooting, make sure the volume level on your computer, the one that controls the volume of that headphone jack, isn't turned all the way up. Then make sure the record level in your Windows "Sound" control panel isn't turned all the way up. There is a "Recording" tab on that control panel, so click it, select your recording device, click Properties and then the "Levels" tab.

If those settings are kosher, try something else. Are the wavs in your recordings clipping or is it just the output to your headphones?

Damien Verrett (Jonas) wrote:So I fired up my mixer and plugged in my condenser mic to record but found that my tracks in Cake Walk are peaking at weirdly low volumes on my mixer.

Reading this, the first things I have to ask, is:

1. The mixer? Are you possibly sending out to your computer via "monitor out" instead of one of your low level outs? My old mixer had an amp for monitor speakers, as I'm sure most do.

2. Mic pre amp? Are you using the mixer as your mic preamp or are you using an external preamp?
2a. If external, is the preamp before or after the mixer?
2b. If external, are you using both the mixer and the external preamp at the same time?

Hey guys! Thanks for all of the help.

I went into control panel and lowered the microphone level a ton and that pretty much fixed it.

I don't know why it'd start doing this all of a sudden though. Weird.

Now I have another problem to fix though!

If I use the pan knob on any of the channels on my mixer it will never pan the audio that I record in Cake Walk :/

Damien Verrett (Jonas) wrote:If I use the pan knob on any of the channels on my mixer it will never pan the audio that I record in Cake Walk :/

1. What model is this mixer?
2. How is it connected to the computer? If not usb or firwire, mention all cables, adapters, splitters.

Why would you want to use the panning on your physical mixer? Shouldn't you use the panning on the software mixer in Cakewalk after you've recorded your tracks?

Are you recording individual mono channels from your mixer into individual mono channels in Cakewalk? Stereo channels to mono tracks? Stereo channels to stereo tracks?

Lunkhead wrote:Why would you want to use the panning on your physical mixer? Shouldn't you use the panning on the software mixer in Cakewalk after you've recorded your tracks?A

I thought this too, but didn't mention it because there have been some here that prefer to use their hardware.

My mixer is Yamaha MG10/2. Right now everything I record is mono but I want it to be stereo so if I want to do like drums or something I can pan the different mics.

I plug it into the microphone input on my sound chord from the mixer's stereo outputs.

Wait, I have that mixer. I will get back to you on the panning. I am sure that I do it...
SPUD

Are you using a stereo output from your mixer that has two physical outputs, left and right? And are you using a microphone input on your sound card that has only one jack? If so, what cables and adapters are you using to do that? Also, are you sure that your sound card's microphone input is a stereo input? If your sound card's microphone input is only a mono input then the panning on your physical mixer will do nothing, because your stereo output from your mixer is getting reduced down to mono somewhere along the way into your computer.

You should really look into getting a cheap USB audio interface that supports two channels of input. Then you can run the left out of your mixer into one, and the right out of your mixer into the other. You can then send both inputs of your audio interface to one stereo track in your audio software. That will allow you to control the panning with your mixer, if you want, but when recording in stereo people generally use certain mic setups combined with specific panning of the audio from the two mics.

Usually when I have problems with peaking I just close my eyes.

Oh wait, wrong kind of peaking.

Damien Verrett (Jonas) wrote:My mixer is Yamaha MG10/2. Right now everything I record is mono but I want it to be stereo so if I want to do like drums or something I can pan the different mics.

I plug it into the microphone input on my sound chord from the mixer's stereo outputs.

Lunk beat me to it. But just to make sure of a couple things.

1. Are you using the RCA (rec) stereo outs on the mixer then sending that to the mic in on your computer? I'm pretty sure this is what you are saying.

2. Are you using a stereo mini (1/8") to go from your stereo RCA cable to the computer?

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but wouldn't you want to use the "line in" on the computer, not the "mic in" when sending a stereo signal?

Yeah, "microphone input" made me suspect that the input on the sound card may be mono. Something labeled "line in" is more likely to be a stereo input. Even still you'll want to make sure you're using cables/adapters that maintain a stereo signal all the way through. You should check the thread Jon Eric started about audio interface. You're in a similar boat that he was in, and he finally saved up some pennies and upgrade and so far seems to be having a pretty good experience.

Here is Jon Eric's thread, which has links to other useful info on the subject of making an incremental and relatively cheap step up from using your sound card for audio input:

http://www.songfight.net/forums/viewtop ... f=6&t=6267

And to add to Lunks thread link. $79.00 for a Lexicon USB interface. I believe this is the Jon went with.

The $39.00 interface that Ken posted yesterday, I don't think it will work right in the situation of using an external mixer because it only has one XLR in and one 1/4" in.

OK Jonas, it turns out that my situation is very similar to yours, so I did the following experiment:

I put a mono drum machine feed into the 1/4" mono jack on channel 1, and let it run.

I ran a cable with 2 rca phono plugs on one end and a 1/8" stereo phone plug on the other from L & R REC OUT on the Yamaha MG10/2 to my sound card's MIC IN and/or LINE IN as described below.

I set my software up to record stereo tracks.

RESULTS:

1. 1/8" into the MIC IN jack on the soundcard: All of the signal went to the left channel. I tried panning the mixer channel 1 left and right, with no effect.

2. 1/8" into the LINE IN jack on the soundcard: two channels of signal. When I panned channel 1 hard left, the signal on the left doubled, and the right went flat. When I panned channel 1 hard right, the signal on the right went to double, and the left side went flat.

LINE IN is your solution (as postulated by others in posts above).

I sometimes set the software up to record stereo as two mono tracks and plug in two instruments, one panned hard left and one panned hard right. The MG 10/2 does a very good job of isolating the signals. Hope this helps.

SPUD

Thanks so much for all of the responses.

I have no clue why I didn't ask these questions ages ago when I got this mixer, but at least I finally got around to it.

Now I just need to find the line in jack. Is it typically on the back of the tower?

Yes, typically your sound card has a number of 1/8" jacks exposed at the back of the tower, with the line in jack being right next to the mic jack. The labeling is done with letters etched (pressed) into the metal support bracket.

If the computer has 1/8'' jacks that are colored pink, light green, and light blue, then they are probably:

pink = mic in
green = output
blue = line in

Note that not all computers *have* a line-in, although every one that I've seen without it was a laptop so your use of the word "tower" is good news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_card#Color_codes
This describes the standard jack color scheme, as well as common symbols for identifying the ins and outs (my sound card has these symbols-- no words labelling the jacks).