Recording signal very low after switching to firewire

[jr-n-va]

Just switched to Mackie/Onyx 1620i w/ firewire interface to the DAW. We're running Beta 1.3 on 64bit Vista and installed drivers etc.
We are getting sound and recording fine except the sound is very low and reflects that on the meter. All volumes are max'd on PC and in Audacity. I've gone into preferences to check any of the settings and everything seems appropriate.
The only way to get a greater strength is to increase the volume out put from the mixer (which is fine for playing music). However, when someone is speaking the signal is low, yet in the outside world the sound level is appropriate. After the recording, i'm having to go to effectamplify to get the volume level high enough to listen to normally for exporting to MP3 file.
Are there any other settings, things to look at for greater signal strength or gain when recording?

[steve]

How high are the (main mix) meters going on the Onyx?

[jr-n-va]

Meter level of the main mix approx from -10dB to 0 unity gain.

[steve]

I'm not familiar with this particular mixer, so I'm not sure what you mean by this:

The only way to get a greater strength is to increase the volume out put from the mixer (which is fine for playing music).

How are you able to increase the volume output from the mixer if the main mix is already peaking up to 0 dB?

[Edgar]

I'm not familiar with this particular mixer, so I'm not sure what you mean by this:

The only way to get a greater strength is to increase the volume out put from the mixer (which is fine for playing music).

How are you able to increase the volume output from the mixer if the main mix is already peaking up to 0 dB?

If OP is like me, OP is using Monitor Sends or Aux Sends to go into the computer.

[kozikowski]

If OP is like me, OP is using Monitor Sends or Aux Sends to go into the computer.

Then the signal at the computer would be determined by controls other than the ones affecting Line-Out, Program-Out, Main-Out or whatever your mixer calls it.

There are similar problems with sending "Tape-Out" to the computer. Tape-Out doesn't always follow all the faders in the mixer.

Koz

[jr-n-va]

After doing some digging, I believe I answered my question: I changed the meter/waveform dB range to -60dB.

Audacity Interface Preference setting

Audacity Pref.JPG (40.38 KiB) Viewed 1124 times

It was set at -36 dB. -60 dB setting provides a nice strong input on the meters and volume is post fader. As a beginner, I've also realized this -60dB seems to match my Mackie main mix fader at -60dB on the bottom end of the scale.

Thanks all for your input!

[steve]

You can also resize the Meter Toolbar by clicking on the edge of it and stretching it (see here for more details: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Mete ... r#resizing ). While recording I usually have it stretched the full width of my screen, which makes it a lot easier to judge the levels.

When setting your levels, a maximum peak level of about -6 dB is a good level to aim for. Before Exporting the finished recording you may want to use the Amplify effect to bring the peak level up a bit closer to 0 dB (I usually go for -1 dB for the finished audio).

Just so that it's clear for everyone reading. Changing the Meter/Waveform dB range does not in itself change the recording level, it only changes the way that the Meters (and the "Waveform dB" view) are displayed.