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Old 06-15-2018, 08:19 PM   #1
sjs94704
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Default Gain Staging a Microphone - I'm a little confused about how to do it!

I have watched several videos on YT and attempted to follow their examples when it comes to gain staging my MIC.

Here is a list of my hardware:
  1. Behringer B-1 Condenser Microphone (Phantom Power - provided by interface)
  2. Behringer U-phoria umc22 Microphone interface (Plugs in via USB)
The B-1 MIC has a switch on the front of it with 3 positions. I currently have it set in the center.
As you all know, when you arm a track for recording, there are two FX buttons, one of which is for input.
What I have been doing is putting a Blue Cat's gain vst on the input FX chain and have been adjusting it until I do not hear any 'room noise'..
I have set the gain of the MIC on the interface to 50% (The white notch it facing straight up)

On the output VST chain I have turned up the gain on the output FX chain until I can hear myself, BUT, when I do that I can hear the background noise of the room.

I live in a 400 SQ Foot Apartment.

I have three tracks for vocals:
  1. Track 1 - Vox Lead (being sent to Track 3 - Reverb)
  2. Track - Vox Double - (For doing a doubling effect on key parts of the vocal) - (Also being sent to track 3 Reverb)
  3. Vox Reverb (Melda Productions - MTurboReverb VST Plugin)

At the moment I have a gain VST on the reverb track

At the moment, when I sing, the waveform of the vocal track is totally FLAT, but, I can hear the vocal loud and clear.

I know of the concept of gain staging, but, as is much of the case, the videos I have found on YT on the subject typically leave out some critical information in order to accomplish proper gain staging.

So, based on the equipment I have, I am not able to reach proper gain staging and I'm not sure the proper controls I need to use with what I have to gain stage things properly and would be grateful for some more basic help in knowing what plugins to put on what VST chain in order to achieve the proper levels.

With the setting I have tried so far, when I sing, the track that m,y actual vocal gets recorded on has a yellow meter and the meter does not even show at all and the only meter that shows is in the Reverb track and my expectation I should have a visible waveform on the track. As stated, at the moment I get a simple line through the center of the track with zero waveform.

How should I consider adjusting things to achieve the proper levels?

Thanks in advance for your help!
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Last edited by sjs94704; 06-15-2018 at 08:25 PM.
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Old 06-15-2018, 09:13 PM   #2
Tod
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjs94704 View Post
As you all know, when you arm a track for recording, there are two FX buttons, one of which is for input.
What I have been doing is putting a Blue Cat's gain vst on the input FX chain and have been adjusting it until I do not hear any 'room noise'..
I have set the gain of the MIC on the interface to 50% (The white notch it facing straight up)

On the output VST chain I have turned up the gain on the output FX chain until I can hear myself, BUT, when I do that I can hear the background noise of the room.
Hi sjs94704, I don't know what you mean when you say "have been adjusting it until I do not hear any 'room noise". If room noise is
present, there's no "gain vst" that's going to take it out, so I'm not sure what you're hearing. And sure, turn up the gain and you will
hear the room noise becasue it was there all the time.

My advice if you're just recording a mic, don't worry about gain staging. Also don't use input FX, you can apply FX after you've recorded
what you want to record.

Just turn up the input on your interface until you get around -18.0dB registering on Reapers meters. Once you get it recorded there are
ways to deal with the room noise, however, there is no way to eliminate it, it needs to be eliminated in your room. Reaper has a FX called
ReaFir that can help with the noise, but like I said it can't be eliminated.

As far as "Gain Staging" that will come after you've recorded either all or some of your tracks. Basically it means to adjust the gains of the
recorded tracks to sound good at a level on the Master track that you're shooting for. There's a lot more to it then that but there are books and
videos to help you with that.
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Old 06-15-2018, 09:17 PM   #3
sjs94704
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Default Thank You! I appreciate yout time answering me!

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