First timer - Recording Levels too low

Windows 8
Audacity 2.0.6
Used .exe to install

Hi,

I’m trying to record my music to my PC and have been having some problems. I have a Behringer UCA202 Audio Interface that I’m using and the audio levels never get above -24. I’ve turned up the Playback and recording volumes in Audacity but that didn’t really help, I’ve turned up the system volume in the control panel, but that didn’t help. It’s been the same with my guitar and microphone (my mike is plugged into the Behringer, not the PC itself). I’ve heard that the PC has an internal mic, but in Audio Devices under Control Panel it says it isn’t available.

Any help on how to get the recording levels up would be appreciated. Thanks.

You missed a step. You plug your microphone into a microphone mixer which boosts the volume. The UCA202 takes the higher volume show from the mixer and digitizes it for Audacity.

This is my UCA202 with my sound mixer on the right.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/peaveyUCA202Lenovo.jpg

The UCA202 will not manage a microphone by itself.

Which microphone do you have?

Koz

I’m using a Shure SM57.

Thanks for the advice, I have a Fostex multi-track recorder/mixer that I rarely use so I’ll run it through that and see what happens.

Perfectly delightful microphone. It’s fame is with instruments, but I’ve used it for other things. I think it just got that reputation for no good reason.

You should know that a correctly matching connector (XLR3-Female) is a really good idea for that microphone. It’s at its best when you use all three of those sound pins on its bottom with no adapters (attach). Just a nice XLR microphone cable.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/XLR-Cable.jpg

Koz
Screen Shot 2014-11-30 at 17.45.30.png

I decided to get one of these, hopefully it’ll work:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000J5XS3C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ok, so now my problem is I’m not getting any sound from the microphone at all in Audacity, hooked up to the Xenyx 802. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have the gain turned up, inputs plugged into the outputs, what am I missing? Here’s my setup:
IMG_0043.JPG

OK, I got my mic to record.

Problem now is playback - I can hear myself fine when I record, but when I play back the recording I don’t hear anything through my headphones.

How can I fix this? My headphones are Proformance P6000, FWIW.

and are plugged into …?

The mixer.

Connect the outputs of the USB interface to the “2-Track Inputs”.
The “2-TR TO CTRL ROOM/PHONES” button should be down.
See pages 7 and 8 of the Xenyx 802 user manual for pictures.

That worked. Thanks a lot!