Don't understand how USB mixer is supposed to work with Aud.

Audacity Help Forum Windows
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Problem: Don’t understand exactly how USB Mixer is supposed to work with Audacity, and if the USB mixer I am using is causing problem with low volume playback.

Equipment: Audacity 2.1.0, Compaq Presario 32 bit tower computer with Vista platform. Presonus Audiovox USB mixer, various electric guitars, modeling pedals, mics, Alesis SR-16 drummer, etc.

I am new to using Audacity. I am trying to use it to do multi-track recording to make some very basic demos of original songs. I do want to get the highest quality sound possible and that the playback volume of the finished product be as close to the volume of professionally recorded CD’s as possible.
The problem I am having is that the playback volume is very low compared to the volume as it goes in. Although I have experimented with the effects: amplification, compression, normalization, etc, it is still not getting me to where the volume needs to be. I am running mostly direct through modeling pedals, electric guitar, bass, Alesis SR16 drummer, etc. into a Presonus USB Audiobox mixer.
I am using the Audiobox USB mixer because it was given to me. (I have cancer and am on a very tight budget) Before I got the Audiovox, here is how I assumed a USB mixer worked: The analog sound would go into the USB mixer and transfer digitally to the USB port on the computer. That is not how it works with the Audiobox.The sound comes out analog from Left and Right outputs on the back of the Audiovox. I’m wondering if this is the problem and that other USB mixers work in the manner I described above. Maybe a USB mixer such as the Berhinger 302 would work better) I was just wondering if others have run into this same problem and if anyone out there can give me some advise.
I read a blog on the forum that said one could export the final project and then normalize and re-import and the volume would be louder. I didn’t really understand since I haven’t gotten that far with the project. I am trying to keep everything to wave files at this time.

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playback volume of the finished product be as close to the volume of professionally recorded CD’s as possible.

That one at least, is going to be Post Post. Very few store-bought music productions are “natural.” They’re all boosted so as to compete in the Loudness War.

“My song is louder than yours!”
“Oh, no it’s not!”

So let’s get the basics.

The instructions are very clear that the computer connection is expected to be the USB cable and the cable is also required to supply power. This, in any event, is the only way that overdubbing would work. The analog connections have latency and delays.

It’s not unusual for a simple USB microphone or a simple USB Microphone Preamplifier (MicPre) to not be very loud. They are all designed with the idea that the newbie performer is not going to be using sound meters. Under-volume, as long as it’s not extreme, can be compensated for. Over-volume, overload and clipping/crashing waveform damage are permanently fatal.

The sound meters can be very valuable when you can’t seem to understand where the show is going wrong. Where are the blue waves? The generic blue wave should be peaking around 50% (0.5) and the sound meters should bounce around -6 (same value, measured differently).

That means the recording inside Audacity is, without putting too much icing on it, perfect.

Playing back this performance can be affected by a number of different settings. Are you playing back through the Presonus? The Presonus has that knob to fade between the computer playback and the live performance plus the headphone volume control and the Audacity playback controls and anything Windows decides to throw in there. All have to be balanced for a successful overdub.

After you get a number of individual tracks, you can play them at once (Audacity default) and use the volume sliders to the left of each track to change instrument balance.

Here it gets fuzzy since I’m not a multi-track producer. I would probably Export a WAV of the balanced work and Save a Project.

Open the WAV by itself and apply Effect > Compressor and Effect > Limiter and possibly other sound management tools to increase the “density,” “force” and loudness of the show, followed by Normalize to put the blue waves as high as possible without damage.

As before, I’m not a multi-track producer. It’s possible to increase the loudness of the individual instruments before mixing, but I would think that would lead to odd mixing problems and the need to backtrack if you screw up.

Backtracking in multi-track can be a nightmare.

Koz

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Problem: Don’t understand exactly how USB Mixer is supposed to work with Audacity, and if the USB mixer I am using is causing problem with low volume playback.

Equipment: Audacity 2.1.0 Compaq Presario 32 bit tower computer with Vista platform, HD powered speakers,. Presonus Audiovox USB mixer, various electric guitars, modeling pedals, mics, Alesis SR-16 drummer, etc.

I am new to using Audacity. I am trying to use it to do multi-track recording to make some very basic demos of original songs. I do want to get the highest quality sound possible and that the playback volume of the finished product be as close to the volume of professionally recorded CD’s as possible.
The problem I am having is that the playback volume is very low compared to the volume as it goes in. Although I have experimented with the effects: amplification, compression, normalization, etc, it is still not getting me to where the volume needs to be. I am running mostly direct through modeling pedals, electric guitar, bass, Alesis SR16 drummer, etc. into a Presonus USB Audiobox mixer.
I am using the Audiobox because it was given to me. Before I got the Audiovox, here is how I assumed a USB mixer worked. The analog sound would go into the USB mixer and transfer digitally to the USB port on the computer. That is not how it works with the Audiobox.The sound comes out analog from Left and Right outputs on the back of the Audiovox. I’m wondering if this is the problem and that other USB mixers work in the manner I described above. Maybe a USB mixer such as the Berhinger 302 would work better(?) I was just wondering if others have run into this same problem and if anyone out there can give me some advise. I saw one blog on the forum that said one could export and then re-import after normalization and that would make the volume louder. I haven’t gotten this far with the project and I didn’t really understand the blog. I am trying to keep everything in the wave format at this time. Please help if possible.
Les

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Please don’t start a new topic with exactly the same content as a previous one. Please read the reply Koz gave you in this topic. If you don’t understand what he wrote, or need more help, press the “Post Reply” or “Quote” button in this topic.


Gale