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:
- Behringer B-1 Condenser Microphone (Phantom Power - provided by interface)
- 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:
- Track 1 - Vox Lead (being sent to Track 3 - Reverb)
- Track - Vox Double - (For doing a doubling effect on key parts of the vocal) - (Also being sent to track 3 Reverb)
- 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!