USB Mic Volume/Clipping Issues

[Reziak]

Hey guys. I recently bought an AT2005 USB Mic to record vocals into Pro Tools. I've been having an issue where basically when I record vocals, the volume ends up being recorded pretty loud. I'm aware of different techniques to reduce the volume such as Source and Mic Placement, but no matter what I seem to do, I seem to run into the same issue. The only solution I've found is to record vocals damn near whispering, which doesn't make sense for a lot of what I'm trying to do and also leads me to my other issue - Clipping. Even when whispering, when trying to add more gain through compression etc after equalizing and so on, I find that I start clipping at extremely low volume. It's very bizarre.

I found out that one of the solutions to this is to reduce the mic gain to anywhere from -6 to -18 db through an amp. The thing is, I'm not using an amp. So given my situation, is there anything I can do to fix this issue? Basically either I can settle on unbelievably low volume, or clip. I 100% can't settle for either of these options. Before getting this mic, I didn't have this problem nearly as badly when I was simply recording on my phone and then transferring the vocals recording from my phone into pro tools. So it seems to be some kind of input issue or something?

Any and all help is extremely appreciated.

Info that might be helpful:

- Using Macbook Pro 2015
- Using a Dynamic AT2005 USB mic with xlr capabilities (not using the xlr tho, although plan to in the near future)
- Messed around with Mic's Input and Output settings from Macbook's Sound Preferences . Not really sure if this is having any effect on the vocals clipping at such a very low volume
- Didn't have this problem as bad bringing a phone recording's vocals into Pro Tools
- Using Pro Tools First