Low guitar input level, but normal output?

[FoxOfHall]

Evening all!

Bit of a strange one that I've not found a solution to by myself yet, and seen similar problems when searching the forum, but no real answer as to I can find.

I've just set up my PT8LE with Mbox Mini 2 on a new system, I've been running it fine on my old PC for years but have now decided to make it more portable, hence switching to a laptop

I've had a few little niggles through set up but all seems to be well so I decided to record a track, nothing strange there.

Running through Line 6 POD Farm 2.5 (same as before) through the same Mbox Mini 2, through the same speakers, same guitar same cables. I've had no problem on my old set up, and to my ear whilst warming up with EZD2 no problems there.

So start to record and sound is coming through fine, but when I look back at the waveforms they are either completely flat (clean guitar) or absolutely tiny (distorted guitar). I've seen this problem before many years ago, but for the life of me I can't remember how to fix it?

Can someone lend a hand please?

Thank you!

[mesaone]

Could it be that waveform zoom has been changed? If you see tiny waveforms but get solid audible playback and good visual feedback on your meters, that's what's going on.

Double click the waveform zoom icon in the edit window to reset it to default.

[Michael Zull]

Sounds like that me too, if your meters look good but the waveforms are tiny try zooming them. Do what mesa said or, if you are on Mac, Option+Shift+Mouse Scroll Wheel. On Windows I think it's Alt+Shift+Scroll, not 100% sure on that though.

[FoxOfHall]

Shoot, should have said about my meter levels, they're down in the low greens with the input. Tried the zoom but it is just a low volume coming through.

I've tried the pad button on the back of the Mbox (Again this has been left in the same position as when it was on my old set up) and yes it does make it louder when I take it off, it sounds horrid, lot of excess noise/hiss.

I did read about the input knob(s) on the front, and again even though it makes it all louder, I didn't need to do this on my old system to which my levels were coming through really well.

Would it be something in the hardware set up or the playback engine?

Thanks for the quick responses!

[FoxOfHall]

(Sandra below)

So I've had a few bugs setting up, and this is still one that's plaguing me.

I've tried a number of sessions to see if it was a set up problem, but it still persists.

When I am recording I am getting a signal (running guitar straight through Mbox Mini 2, using Line 6 POD Farm 2.5 as insert A) and although I have a clear sound coming through my speakers and is very audible, I'm still getting a very low input signal (meters are barely lifting into the green) This one still stumps me as I never had to use the gain knob on my old system and doing so with this one distorts the signal.

I did try the zooms as people suggested, but even though that makes the wavelengths visable, it doesn't increase the input level of the recording.

With the Mbox Mini 2 I'm aware they have PAD button on the back, I've tried that in both positions, and this does not seem to be the answer either.

Are there any options within PT for audio input I may have missed whilst setting up this new system?

Thanks again!

SiSoftware Sandra

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[Michael Zull]

This might be a dumb question, but does the guitar you are recording with have active pickups? If so, when was the last time you replaced the 9V battery? Have you tried tracking straight into the MBox without the Pod Farm? Try that to see if the Line 6 is acting up.

[FoxOfHall]

Passive, like I mentioned, it's the same set up guitar/mbox wise as my last system, just after switching to this laptop, the input signal from the mbox has dropped right off.

I'll take Pod farms out of the equation and see if that works.

[FoxOfHall]

Update, no it didn't work, and now I am completely out of ideas.

[FoxOfHall]

Here's a visual whilst recording.