I'm brand new at this, and feeling my way around. I am trying to record a dulcimer, finger-picked, not strummed, so the music is not very loud. Nevertheless, the playback sound should be audible and consistent, and it isn't.

I'm using a microphone, with volume turned way up, as close to the instrument as I can get it. My voice comes through loud and clear, but the dulcimer tracks are very faint, and sometimes fade out altogether, then come back faintly again. I have put everything on maximum volume. Everything. Nevertheless I would say my voice playback is "medium," not "loud." The dulcimer track ranges from "faint" to "silent."

I rendered it at MP4, and it was awful. MP3 was marginally better, but not usable.

Why does this work with my voice (I can deal with "medium" volume), but not with an instrument? I'm just doing a demo track for a vocalist, and am about to record the dulcimer on my phone instead of Music Studio because the quality, poor as it is, is way better than this. I'll just splice that phone recording track into the audio file because I'm clearly not figuring out this software. Can somebody please help? Thanks

@SP. knows way more than me, but I did want to add that I have had similar issues in the past with some "lower cost" USB mics I had gathered over time...they seemed like a good deal, and some even looked cool....

it wasn't Magix related as it did funky levels in two other DAWs too. I've since boxed up those appealing and seemingly easy to use mics that I had bought.... I have others that did not perform in that way and were more "steady" levels in use... after all levels and distances were set... so it was either a mic quality issue, or possibly a driver (being usb) issue into the recording line/track.... The most clear and full sounding usb mic I've personally tried is a Presonus Revelator USB mic, they can be had on the low $49 range too. I'm just going to use XLR mics from now on when I need to record... just easier than the whole usb driver, compatibility, and input/output device change issues that can come up....

I'm using a Yeti Nano. I'd used a bigger "Blue" microphone at work without any problems, which is why I got it. That doesn't mean anything because I only did voice recordings at work.

Here's the other thing. I set up the software on one laptop and got no playback sound at all when I recorded, then just accidentally hit something (I guess) and was able to record my voice and spotty instrumentation. That's when I wrote here. Then I loaded it onto a second laptop, and I'm back to no sound at all, with no clue as to what I did with the first laptop to get it to sort of work.

I have no idea what I did, and the online help wasn't pointing me in the right direction. This might be the case if it was a driver. What driver would I need and where would I get it, if this were the problem? Otherwise, is this a bad microphone? Or, is there some setup process I need to go through to get this software to work, and online help doesn't cover it?

Thanks!

I will let others chime in that know more technically than I do, but I can tell you I have had the same issues (with said USB mics in past). Maybe its a combo of Mic quality/sensitivity, usb driver efficiency, sometimes settings that change, and also could even be related to your audio card settings/quality on different computers.... I'm selling my Presonus Revelator as I'm just plain tired of dealing with usb mics, but it works great.... just it comes with so many options and software that I'm not going to use, so figured best to let someone else enjoy it.....

I may change my mind and keep it too... as I often do... as it just plain sounds good and is usb friendly too... it just has lots of deep features that are cool, but also make feel more complicated too, if you look at them... I guess you could just stay away from its deep feature page and use basically, which is what I probably should do.....

Its biggest Con is that it is not isolated/suspended, so any bumps on the desktop are heard on it since it used a heavy footed stand, stable, but translating to surface noises you may make....

@Namedujour

Hi

. . . . Yeti Nano . . . .

This is designed for close up vocals and is not ideal for recording instruments like a picked/strummed dulcimer due to the mics low sensitivity.

If you are restricted to this mic only, then the recording of the instrument and vocals should be done separately, recording the instrument first and then vocals. Trying to record vocals and the Dulcimer at the same time is not ideal and most likely will result in in both being 'poor'.

To record the instrument using the Nano, it needs to be very close to the instrument, with the microphone capsules facing down on to the dulcimer soundboard, however the soundboard/holes design may still cause issues with fall off of volume.

Ideally you need a more sensitive cardiod microphone placed about 450 - 600 mm above the instrument to ensure full coverage of the soundboard/holes, again recording instrument and vocals separately.

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator

I can still return the Yeti Nano. Do you have something else to recommend that isn't as complicated as the Presonus Revelator seems to be?

In fact, I'm just going to return the microphone and await your recommendations. Thank you!

I can still return the Yeti Nano. Do you have something else to recommend that isn't as complicated as the Presonus Revelator seems to be?

In fact, I'm just going to return the microphone and await your recommendations. Thank you!

wow, great info from @johnebaker 

I am not a fully experienced guy, but I am not a newbie either.. I have tried many lower cost solutions over past 5-10 years for a Hobbyist fit... I'm sure there are many good Mics out there that I don't know about, but don't get me wrong, the Presonus Revelator isn't hard or complicated to use, it just has to be setup with a Presonus "universal control" driver like app, then the rest is pretty much plug and play.. it just has a deep interface, mic studio, like page you can open up if you desire to... but you don't have to. Whats cool about it is it has function buttons on front of mic along with volume knob, so its pretty handy... I think I'm going to keep mine come to think of it, lol. Its too nice to sell away for low money.... Try going to the Presonus site to learn more about it, and maybe watch a few quick videos to get an idea of what makes it stand out from others in the $50-$100 range. I believe it even has different polar patterns you can activate.... very handy... and super clear in recording too!

I'll keep that in mind for sure. Geek Squad has a guy who knows audio software and I made an appointment so he can set up the software. They told me to take the laptop to Guitar Center afterward and get the microphone from them, so they could set it up and adjust everything. They can probably help with that driver too, I think. Thanks!!

I'll keep that in mind for sure. Geek Squad has a guy who knows audio software and I made an appointment so he can set up the software. They told me to take the laptop to Guitar Center afterward and get the microphone from them, so they could set it up and adjust everything. They can probably help with that driver too, I think. Thanks!!

I wish you the best... please share what they end up doing here if can, mainly for future users looking to learn solutions.

I spoke to the Geek Squad guy who told me it would be best to have the microphone first, so he sent me off to Guitar Center and scheduled me for another appointment so he could set me up afterwards. The guy at Guitar Center told me the microphone you recommended was better with higher-volume instruments and wouldn't work as well with the soft sounds of a hand-picked dulcimer, so he scoured the list of mics until he found one he thought would work ($150 range). They don't have it in stock so they ordered it. I'm in a holding pattern until I can pick it up, but that's what I learned: First go to a music store for the mic, then find someone at a Geek Squad near you who knows audio software and can set you up and explain things if you're totally lost. I think I should be okay now!

@Namedujour

Hi

Thanks for the feedback, which mic did he recommend?

John EB

Sennheiser USB-C.

@Namedujour In my opinion, an XLR microphone with an ASIO capable external USB audio interface should have been recommended instead of a USB-C microphone. Next, to record an instrument in a room I would probably use something like a Zoom handheld recorder.

Too late! He tallied up the cost of a non-USB mic that had no stand and I need a stand (only USB mics has built in stands, he said), so I needed to buy one, and also some sort of hardware on addition to that, and it went way over my budget, so he went with USB. We'll see how it goes.

Too late! He tallied up the cost of a non-USB mic that had no stand and I need a stand (only USB mics has built in stands, he said), so I needed to buy one, and also some sort of hardware on addition to that, and it went way over my budget, so he went with USB. We'll see how it goes.

I hope it turns out to be exactly what you needed.... if not, at least you can return it to GC.

Let us know how it turns out in testing... I'd like to maybe try the same/similar test on my Revelator to see how it captures like sounds you are trying...

I just reread your goal, and "A" I don't have a dulcimer :), and "B" I don't sing, lol

But I'd still like to try to do a similar capture to see how my humble Revelator does... maybe one of my low cost well rated XLR mics too....

I'm not an experienced pro, but isn't capturing acoustic instruments "well" really a challenge by design... for anyone? then throw in soft finger picking close up detail with louder vocal frequencies from much farther distance... sounds technically challenging for pure clarity to me.... Dual mics, or a properly angled "right kind of focus" mic is what I've read about...

Probably why big studios have Mic Lockers, gasp....