Do I need another preamp?

I have a Focusrite usb 6 and an at2020 condenser mic.  It doesn't give me a strong enough signal.  I up the input to just below clipping but it just doesn't seem loud enough. Can I use another mic pre with this interface?

Barczar


I have a Focusrite usb 6 and an at2020 condenser mic.  It doesn't give me a strong enough signal.  I up the input to just below clipping but it just doesn't seem loud enough. Can I use another mic pre with this interface?

Why do you say it isn't loud enough? What are you comparing it to?


Are you listening to the track in isolation or as part of a mix?

I use a Saffire 6 USB on my laptop rig and I am very familiar with the AT2020. I am not experiencing any problems gain wise on the Saffire. I would look at trouble on the mic itself. A cord problem, or pad switch engaged. Are you using the zero latency of the mixer knob to hear your self? Are you turning the mixer knob all the way up and using the DAW to hear your self? If you are turning the mixer knob all the way up then I would look at the mix itself being the problem. Both the Saffire and the AT2020 have more than enough gain! You should not have to bring in another preamp at all.

stupid question but does it require phantom power? is the phantom power on?

So many questions...      :-S






If the peaks are clipping (see post #1) and it doesn't seem loud enough...
It's because the signal's peak to average ratio is to high.




If you reduce the peak to average ratio and raise the overall level the signal will sound louder.

That's what compressors were invented for.




best regards,
mike

Reduce mix level volume of instrumentation, turn interface up, effectively increasing the volume of the vocal. A compressor as Mike_Mccue has suggested will most definitely help, but shouldn't be necessary with a well sorted signal chain.

I'm not familiar enough with the USB 6 to know what is wrong but I would think there is something wrong with your setup if you have a healthy input level but can't hear it.

Another USB 6 user should be more help.

So many questions.  If the vox recording is low, how low is it?  What are you using for the other tracks.  Any other acoustic recordings should be low, too, unless you have a very soft voice.  If you are using loops or something like Z3TA (which always goes into the red, it seems), a normal acoustic recording will sound limp incomparison, unless you turn them down.

It sounds more like a mixing problem than technical.  If you are recording a strong signal (almost clipping as you describe) but you can't hear the vocal you need to turn down everything else for the mix.  If you are listening on headphones while recording and have the "thru" button button on in SONAR it passes through the signal recorded to the output.  If you also have your interface passes the signal to the monitoring chain you will hear whatever you are recording twice and it will be louder, realitive to teh backing tracks, while recording.

A preamp will help with a low-output mic or impedence mismatch.  Esp.  buit-in preamps will usually only have 50 dB of gain.  Combine that with a weak mic and a soft voice and you have to beg the input level, and most interface preamps will get noisy and crap out if you belt one word. Also, if you are eating the mic to get level small headmovements will affect the sound quality, including proximity effect. 

But you say that you are recording a strong signal - it is only weak on playback.  My suggestion is to look at the mixing part.  lower the faders on all the backing tracks all the way down.  Put your vocal at unity (0 on most boards, virtual or real).  Then bring the backing faders up, starting with the rhythm tracks.  Keep them low so they don't mask the vocal at all, then bring up the other instruments.  Most of the time the other tracks will be at -12 dB or less.

@

Sounds like you just have to turn your playback mix down and then turn your headphone mix up. Then your voice will be louder in the mix when you record, not drowned ut.

Lance