Avid Pro Audio Community

Avid Pro Audio Community

How to Join & Post  •  Community Terms of Use  •  Help Us Help You

Knowledge Base Search  •  Community Search  •  Learn & Support


Avid Home Page

Go Back   Avid Pro Audio Community > Legacy Products > Pro Tools 10

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 12-21-2012, 12:00 PM
ianbee ianbee is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Earth
Posts: 201
Angry Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

I have my mono audio track setup in pro tools 10 on a windows computer.. my mic is in the back xlr port 2 (tried port 1 aswell). And when I record vocals, the levels are signifcantly low... I've moved the gain knob almost completly to the right (4/5 to the right) and when i sing loud into the mic I barely get yellow. If the gain knob is adjusted this far to the right, shouldn't it be picking up a louder singal? And no, the 20db pad isn't enabled (the gain knob is pushed in). Here is what it looks like in Pro Tools when I sing pretty loud (into my neumann tlm 102) and the gain knob is far to the right:


the volume should be significantly louder!!! Could anyone help me out with this little issue?! plzz :)
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 12-21-2012, 12:10 PM
jmitchell1532 jmitchell1532 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 764
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

Is the phantom power turned on? How loud are you singing?
__________________
Jon

HP Pavilion P6000, AMD Athlon II X2 240 (2.8GHz), FOXCONN 2AB1 MoBo, 16GB DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS, Two WD Caviar Black Internal500 gig, One WD External 300 Gig, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit, SD2, Metal Foundry, Focusrite Saffire 6, PT 9.03 (stable), Gibson Les Paul Studio (Drop D), Fender Tele (nashville tuning), hand built Carvin Bolt (finished!)
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 12-21-2012, 12:20 PM
ianbee ianbee is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Earth
Posts: 201
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

Quote:
Originally Posted by jmitchell1532 View Post
Is the phantom power turned on? How loud are you singing?
I'm singing real loud and phantom power is turned on... here is what it looks like when I record me playing acoustic guitar... loud! and gain knob is turned to the right far, pushed in and phantom power is on...

http://i.imgur.com/03XnF.jpg

this sucks so bad! I was lookginf forward to testing out my new mic with vocals and guitars, but everything is just quiet. Thanks for the reply though.

edit: I'll try restarting my computer, what the hell!!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 12-21-2012, 12:33 PM
ianbee ianbee is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Earth
Posts: 201
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

it's weird because in the mbox control panel it doesn't even allow me to adjust any of the hardware inputs because it doesn't detect there is any.. when infact there is a mic plugged in. The section is just greyed out. Maybe that is the problem? I don't know...

edit: I installed the latest mbox 3 driver.. ajusted the hardware inputs to as high as they could go, and I still have this volume issue... wtf?!?!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 12-21-2012, 01:53 PM
persuader's Avatar
persuader persuader is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 95
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

what mic are you using? have you tried starting a entirely new session?
check mic cable? have you turned of your pc:s internal audio device so
that the mbox is the default audio device in control panel? hardware settings
in PT?
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 12-21-2012, 02:02 PM
ianbee ianbee is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Earth
Posts: 201
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

Quote:
Originally Posted by persuader View Post
what mic are you using? have you tried starting a entirely new session?
check mic cable? have you turned of your pc:s internal audio device so
that the mbox is the default audio device in control panel? hardware settings
in PT?
I did most of these things, and eventually contacted avid support... let them take control of my computer and they said it's a problem with the mic preamps and to contact the place where i got the mbox from and tell them the issue and ask for it to be replaced (if they wont replace it then avid will).. this is gonna take soo long!
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 12-21-2012, 04:16 PM
jasonthurley's Avatar
jasonthurley jasonthurley is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: New York NY
Posts: 1,451
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

Ok,

Take a deep breath and then explain these 2 things...

1. I see your meters have "Peaked" at some point in these picks... Where are the meters reading at when you are recording this? (or post a picks of the meters.

2. What is your wave form view set too?? You can adjust the size (height) of the waveform.... (Hence why I ask about the meters)

If your meters are reading anywhere near the yellow line and the waveform just looks small you can adjust the view options so it looks larger.

The other thing to consider is microphone type as I have a couple microphones that are quite low in level with the gain turned up almost all the way, others are quite prominent and easy to get to peak levels at less than 50% gain.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 12-21-2012, 04:32 PM
Pinball Wizard Pinball Wizard is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA
Posts: 185
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

Mbox 3 & Mbox 3 pro have low microphone gain. Please see this thread.

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=319700
__________________
Main Workstation: Pro Tools 2023.12.1, Windows 11, HP Z4 Xeon 8 core W2145, 64 GB DDR4, Omni, Artist Mix, Sync X, Eleven R(2 of them), UAD 2 PCIe card
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 12-21-2012, 05:09 PM
Craig F Craig F is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 12,606
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

TLM 102 should have a ton of output, what mic cable are you using, Neumann doesn't tie shield to ground in the mic so ether you need to use the Gothem cable that comes with it or one that has the shell of the female XLR tied to pin 1
__________________
...

"Fly High Freeee click psst tic tic tic click Bird Yeah!" - dave911


Thank you,

Craig
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 12-21-2012, 05:54 PM
ianbee ianbee is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Earth
Posts: 201
Default Re: Is this normal? (mbox 3 & mic levels)

Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonthurley View Post
Ok,

Take a deep breath and then explain these 2 things...

1. I see your meters have "Peaked" at some point in these picks... Where are the meters reading at when you are recording this? (or post a picks of the meters.

2. What is your wave form view set too?? You can adjust the size (height) of the waveform.... (Hence why I ask about the meters)

If your meters are reading anywhere near the yellow line and the waveform just looks small you can adjust the view options so it looks larger.

The other thing to consider is microphone type as I have a couple microphones that are quite low in level with the gain turned up almost all the way, others are quite prominent and easy to get to peak levels at less than 50% gain.
The levels peeked at one point when I turned the gain knob COMPLETELY to the right and the signal came through my speakers, and then the mic picked it up and the signals peeked. The signal being in the red isn't from my vocals, and I'm singing pretty loud when they fail to peek!!

And also, the tlm 102 shoudln't be this quiet. If it was, I would have found issues similar to mine online, but I never did. Thanks for the help though!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig F View Post
TLM 102 should have a ton of output, what mic cable are you using, Neumann doesn't tie shield to ground in the mic so ether you need to use the Gothem cable that comes with it or one that has the shell of the female XLR tied to pin 1
Hi, I talked to a helpful avid technichian over the phone and he said its most likely a preamp problem with my mbox, and I'm going to be sending it in for repairs soon... But I did try using a different xlr cable and it boosted the levels up by a tiny tiny bit. When I crank the gain knob practically all the way to the right and sing pretty loud, i get high green levels, when I should be getting a lot louder, clipped distorted levels with the gain knob almost fully turned right.

But anways, I'm using a mogami gold xlr cable. Shouldn't that work fine? and no cable came with the mic, just the mic and the clip mount. Are you saying that the gothem xlr cable should fix this problem and fix the gain level issues??

Thanks for the help so far!! :)
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Normal Levels from Pre amp, Clipping Pro Tools tbystedt macOS 0 03-03-2013 05:36 PM
what's the normal behavior of power led on Mbox 2 Pro? compusic 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) 0 11-13-2009 11:55 PM
>>poor MBox performance! is this normal? megahurt 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 7 12-17-2003 11:48 AM
Mbox replacing normal pc soundcard? audiocase 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) 3 11-05-2003 11:22 AM
MBox: Normal to need such high mic gain? P_M_C 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 3 07-06-2003 11:15 PM


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 08:51 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. Forum Hosted By: URLJet.com