Loss of Signal with Firewire?

[alexbert]

Thank you for your prompt reply, stevethefiddle,
in other words the level I get analogic with the MIC IN and the level I get digital via firewire are not comparable?
but actually if I push the mixer slide up to 0 dB (with firewire connection), still I have not the same level as with MIC IN connection, and in order to have the same level I have to increase LEVEL and GAIN on the mixer with resulting higher ground noise ...
anyway I will try further.

regardins multiple tracks recording, I already did what you suggest, but I do not understand how to assign each audacity track to each channel.
moreover when I try to record, I get the message"Error at device opening. check device input setting and sample frequency" (this is a translation of what i get in italian).
maybe I have to enable somewhere the multipletrack recording or the channel assigning.

thanx for your attention

Alex

[steve]

Audacity would like to have a signal close to, but not exceeding 0dB. However some audio hardware will start to clip the signal (a kind of distortion caused by the top and bottom of the signal being chopped off) below 0dB. It is therefore best to aim for a signal as close to 0dB as possible without introducing any audible (or visible) clipping.

Your on-board mic input uses completely different hardware to your mixing desk input, so there is no direct relationship between the two, other than that they feed an audio signal to Audacity.

Most mixing desks these days have multi-coloured LED meters. Green shows there is a signal,then it turns orange as the level increases, and finally red. It is quite ok for the meters to show orange, but you should avoid red as this indicates that the signal is being clipped.

I don't know about you particular desk, but usually there is a way of metering the "Pre-Fade Level" (PFL) - this is the signal level of any one channel of your mixer, after going through the EQ. section, but before the "level" fader. If you have this facility, turn the master fader down fairly low and adjust the "gain" (sometimes called "trim") so that the pre-fade level shows a strong level (up to the top of the green and sometimes touching the orange on the meter). Then switch to normal metering and adjust the master fader so that the meter again shows a strong signal. The signal that Audacity receives should now be at a good level, though you may need to tweak things a bit to get the optimum. (avoid driving anything into the red though).