Small waveforms, total newbie

Hi, I’ve downloaded Audacity recently and connected my goXLR mini and Samson Q2U mic. I have changed the input/outputs to the chosen mic and speakers, but when I record the waveforms are tiny and if I amplify they are exceeding the 1.0/-1.0. I’m a complete beginner and I’m finding this difficult to navigate. This also happens if I just plug my mic in directly with the USB. Any ideas please ?

Make sure your USB recording device is selected in the Audacity Device Toolbar: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/device_toolbar.html

What do you mean, amplify? That is exactly how are you amplifying?

Samson Q2U mic.

That’s probably one of the most complicated microphones I’ve ever seen. I’m reading the instruction manual and I still don’t know that I have it all down.

There is good news. As far as I can tell, once you get it running, it should sound pretty good.

You plugged the Samson Q2U mic into the goXLR mini with an XLR type cable…

… and the goXLR mini into the computer, right? The goXLR mini lights come on?

Any other cables?

The goXLR mini has a lot of lights. Do they do anything? Do any of them change when you speak loudly into the microphone? As far as I can tell from the instructions, the lights just go up and down as you push the sliders up and down. Is that right?

Koz

Perhaps you are too far from the mic.
The design of the Samson Q2U mic suggests that it should be pretty close to your mouth. If you have a fairly quiet speaking voice, try around 10 cm from mic to mouth. What levels do you get in Audacity like that?