Low Volume Recording

[Penya_Oscar]

Hi guys, I'm new to this program and technically very much amateur. One of my problems is very low level of sound. Sound goes from my Behringer DDM4000 mixer through coax to my Audigy SE. I have to put gain on my mixer +18.0 db to get file with volume lover then any other track on my PC. Record level in Windows 100. Anyone else experienced such a problem? Thanks

[kozikowski]

We need you to go back there with a flashlight and tell us exactly which connectors are plugged into what. Both of these devices are completely capable of managing both digital or analog audio transmission and there's no way to tell from your posting. icons, English words, or colors. We need something.

Koz

[Penya_Oscar]

Ok, my mixer have 2 outs for recording, one is normal white/red outs and other is SPDIF. Manual saying SPDIF is where you find W/R out in CD quality, so I decide to go that way. From SPDIF I have coaxial cable connected to Creative Digital I/O Module and then module into Line in/Mic of Audigy. The signal is very low. Yesterday I have also tried red/white tape out direct into Line in/Mic of Audigy and it was brilliant but when you listen in wav or mp3 you can hear where level went to high some weird sounds/glitches. Thank you for your reply

[Penya_Oscar]

Hi again, please somebody reply to this one, may be I'm too stupid but something is not working properly. It's so easy to cross the line between low volume and clipping. When I do recording all levels seems ok then when I listen to it volume is low, if I give a bit more sound it starts clipping. While recording I'm trying to keep levels high as much as possible and no to clip, but then when I listren to it no good. Again I'm using Behringer DDM4000 from its red/white tape out into Line In of SB Audigy SE. I'm just thinking is it my SB? May be I need better sound card? Or may be its combination of SB and Vista? Please help. Thanks sorry for my English.

[Penya_Oscar]

Anyone?

[steve]

The Audigy card should give good results.

Keep the levels high, but out of the red on the mixer. (Pushing the levels into the red will cause distortion).

Keep the peak recording level in Audacity below -6 dB
In Audacity you can drag the meter toolbars around and stretch them to the full width of the screen for more accurate monitoring. Also in Audacity 1.3.5 you can switch between "Linear" and "Logarithmic" scales.

Adjust the playback level of your Audigy (and your speakers) to get a good playback volume.

Note that if you record several tracks that will play together (multi-tracking), the mix of the tracks will be louder than any of the individual tracks. You will therefore need to monitor the playback levels and reduce track volume levels as necessary.

When you have completed your mix, you can use the "Normalize" or "Amplify" effect to bring the levels up to 0dB.

If you want a "super loud" recording (as is typical on Dance music and other forms of contemporary popular music) you will need to use a "Limiter" or a "Compressor" to reduce the dynamic range. You will find more information about "dynamic compression" and other recording techniques on Google,

[Penya_Oscar]

Thank you matee. Have upgraded to 1.3 and seems it works better for me, still have few things to learn. Many Thanks