Recording vocals. They come out SO low!

[AlexandraB]

Hey all


I did search for a thread like this however I've not seen one, apologies if I've missed it and therefore repeating a topic!

When I record the sound it is more or less non existant. I've seeked out some tutorials on youtube, it seems one other person was having this problem and the advice was to go to preferences and adjust the settings, which I now have done. However it seems to make no difference. The volume is turned up on the main volume bit too.

I'm using windows vista, and I'm plugging a Samson C01U card directly into the laptop. I have also plugged in some headphones.

I'm basically just trying to record some vocals over a song to send someone and having a bit of trouble!

Any help would be great


Alexandra

[AlexandraB]

Oh shoot. I've posted this in completely the wrong place!

[kozikowski]

If you do decide you made a mistake, copy/paste the message into a new thread and delete this one, but it's too late now. If you started a second thread, go back and delete that one. People post in the wrong place all the time, but double posting is very awkward and frowned on.

USB microphones can be low volume because they don't have any convenient way for them to change to avoid damage if the performance gets too loud. However, they shouldn't be too low. Where are the green playback meters bouncing during the playback of your show so far?

Koz

[steve]

I've deleted the other post.
If you tell us which version of Audacity you are using I will move this topic to the correct place.

Re. the low volume; have you installed the SoftPre applet for your microphone?
(see here: http://www.samsontech.com/PRODUCTS/prod ... rodID=1810 )

[AlexandraB]

Hey guys


Apologies for the confusion of threads!

I visisted the softpre applet website, and as I have vista it is not compatibe. However I found some advice regarding vista, and they mentioned where to go when you first install Audacity to turn the volume up, which I've done, and it has definitely helped!

However, I tried it out over a piece of music, and it's just not loud enough (everything is on max). I figured it was because I had the music up too loud, so I turned it down quite a bit, and it's not audible enough, although a squillion times better than before!

Any advice on volumes recording over a piece of music?

[AlexandraB]

Actually, i've figured it out.

My next question is, I'm wearing headphones, quite good ones, and the recording is still picking up other noises