I use Ardour Linux and a Macky Onxy interface.
Unfortunately, I think the input level is very low when I want to record acoustic guitar with a condenserior mic. The meter shows about -15 / -20 db.
When I “turn” the “Gain” control at the top of the channel strip of the virtual mixer, nothing happens. Shouldn’t the input level increase?
In such cases a series of “dumb” questions must appear, like: have you set the analog gain in your interface/mixer properly? Is the phantom power enabled on your mic input? Is the capture level on the sound interface maxed (can be checked in AlsaMixer)? Sorry if this is all obvious, but sometimes there is a nasty problem in such areas.
Nope. As opposed to the trim/gain control in analog consoles, in Ardour it is applied after disk, I believe. So it affects playback only.
That is correct. Ardour cannot control the analog gain of the hardware.
The trim control is to allow to add/remove gain for pre-fader effects, leaving the Fader for the slower artistic changes.
While it is a bit low, it may be a bad thing. Many soundcards work best in the -20 … -10dBFS range, and you do not risk any clipping.
Does the device have a USB mixer inerface? What platform do you use, if Linux, check open a terminal window and run:
alsamixer
Then <F6> to pick the soundcard, <F4> to show input level controls.
Then again the Onyx, perhaps has some actual faders or settings on the device itself
Onyx has an analog Trim/Gain control. Both the interfaces and the mixers do.
@MichaelSchramm This is what would need to be adjusted (The analog gain/trim on the mixer or interface) but as @x42 mentioned, -15/-20dBFS is actually not a bad range to be in for any modern interface. Typically around -12/-18dBFS tends to be where people aim for, for recording purposes so not sure you really need to worry about this much honestly.
Seablade
Okay, thanks a lot all of you.
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