Microphone issues (over recording/clipping)

[h8ingwin7]

Can anyone help me?

When I record or hear my voice, its sounds fine, I click record on any program that records voice, I use Cubase 5.0 and a few other programs but for simplicity I also tried windows voice recorder and I get the same thing.

My voice levels appear to OK, but when I play it back its over recorded and distorted as if Ive put the gain on max or something. I've been reading alot of issues regarding upgrading to Win7 and the microphone level but most people are not getting sound, but I'm getting sound, just really rubbish quality sound and I never had this issue with Windows Vista Ultimate (32bit), I upgraded my system recently to Windows 7 Home Premium (32bit) and its been nothing but headaches - starting to think the upgrade was a bad idea.

I'm kinda into my home recording and I have an Alesis USB multimix 4 that I plug a Rode NT3 Condenser Microphone into. The problem is that none of the sound settings make a difference (changing mic levels etc...) - i have the all latest drivers for all my hardware and everything I run is completely legit.

Any ideas anyone, any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[zigzag3143]

Can anyone help me?

When I record or hear my voice, its sounds fine, I click record on any program that records voice, I use Cubase 5.0 and a few other programs but for simplicity I also tried windows voice recorder and I get the same thing.

My voice levels appear to OK, but when I play it back its over recorded and distorted as if Ive put the gain on max or something. I've been reading alot of issues regarding upgrading to Win7 and the microphone level but most people are not getting sound, but I'm getting sound, just really rubbish quality sound and I never had this issue with Windows Vista Ultimate (32bit), I upgraded my system recently to Windows 7 Home Premium (32bit) and its been nothing but headaches - starting to think the upgrade was a bad idea.

I'm kinda into my home recording and I have an Alesis USB multimix 4 that I plug a Rode NT3 Condenser Microphone into. The problem is that none of the sound settings make a difference (changing mic levels etc...) - i have the all latest drivers for all my hardware and everything I run is completely legit.

Any ideas anyone, any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Dont know your hardware, but if it worked in vista, the same driver should work here if installed in compatibility mode.

You might want to check the current driver in device manager to make sure it is installed and working

let us know if you need help

Ken

 

[fireberd]

What happens if you play some audio that has been previously recorded and was OK? Just curious if you can isolate it to a recording or a playback issue. I have a recording studio setup with Sonar 8.5.3 but I use a separate Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 recording interface, I don't use the PC's sound card with Sonar either for recording or playback.

 

[h8ingwin7]

Thanks for help so far guys appreciate it!

@Ken, yep the driver working and up to date, as for my sound card, its a VIA on board card that is bulit into my asus motherboard m3a76-CM. but this kind of ties into what to what fireberd has mentioned, I'm not actually using my sound card I'm using an external USB mixer when im recording and playing back...my alesis mixer acts as the sound card. however the playback through the mixer is the same, its all distorted and over-recorded, and when I got and unplug the mixer and listen to it on my via hd sound card it's the same thing.

@ Fireberd, i've listened to previous recordings I did on vista and there are no issues there, it seems like the mic is being recorded much to high and the monitor levels during recording show they are high (over recording even) but the playback in my headphones or on my speakers during recording is very low (practically can't even hear what im recording) but when I stop the recording. press play, my speakers almost explode from how loud it is - perhaps a slight exaggeration but it is very very loud and poor distorted quality. I think you've helped tho coz it appears to be a recording issue and that helps narrow it down, however i am still unsure of what I can do.

All in all thank you guys both for your contributions I am still kind of scratching my head and hopefully i can figure out something too because it is really frustrating.

All the other sounds on my computer act completely normally (for example watching a movie or listening to mp3's or even my old voice recordings) on either my sound card or through my alesis mixer, however the moment i try to input anything through the mixer (as I have tried with both a dynamic mic and a condenser mic to test if there were mic issues) but I will have a terribly distorted and unsuable recordings.

It must have something to do with win7, or drivers or something..lol....im just not sure what else I can do.

 

[fireberd]

it seems like the mic is being recorded much to high and the monitor levels during recording show they are high (over recording even)

Can you monitor the output of the mixer - directly by connecting a monitor directly to the output of the mixer that you are using to feed the PC. Also, if there is a record level control, try turning it down. If your system has the System Mixer function, use that as the record source in the PC and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Aphelion]

There's usually a record level control available.
Never mind... just read your post for the second time.

I'm curious... what are you monitoring the playback through... the Alesis?
Have you tried turning the Alesis input trim control down?

Ap

 

[HotMess]

Same set up same Problem

hello i do exactly what you do and have the same problem of overclipping during playback.

i use Cubase sx3 and have an alesis multimix 8 usb. mtx condenser microphone. it worked fine until i upgraded my OS to Windows 7 ultimate. it is annoying. I almost thought my mic was shot till you explained it to the tee. I see you posted this 4 mths ago. Curious if you found the problem. Is it a driver from Alesis or Windows problem.

Thanks for your help

 

[Aphelion]

hello i do exactly what you do and have the same problem of overclipping during playback.

i use Cubase sx3 and have an alesis multimix 8 usb. mtx condenser microphone. it worked fine until i upgraded my OS to Windows 7 ultimate. it is annoying. I almost thought my mic was shot till you explained it to the tee. I see you posted this 4 mths ago. Curious if you found the problem. Is it a driver from Alesis or Windows problem.

Thanks for your help

Curious... was it a fresh install of Windows 7 or did you upgrade over the top of the previous OS?

When you record to Cubase... does the waveform look over recorded, you know the look, all black wave form, peaks extending way beyond the 0db boundary.

Ap

 

[HotMess]

Yes A fresh install from XP

I upgraded my OS from XP to Windows 7 Ultimate. And Yes the wavs in Cubase are definately recorded peaking. But the Sound out of the headphones are good while recording. It isn't until playback that the recorded vocals are loud.

I tried a different recording software as well to see if Cubase is the problem, and the same thing occured.

Thanks

 

[h8ingwin7]

@Hotmess

Yes I have solved my problem, it was Win7 driver problem, you have to turn you mic input level riiiiiiight down, something ridiculous like at (3-5) or something really small like that. Try this, it worked for me, I was worried it was the alesis too but it still works fine on my laptop that uses XP, and my other laptop that uses vista, so I knew it had to be Win7.

I had been floating around on blogs and read someone that had the same problem and this was the fix, I admit I was skeptical because I was worried with my condenser mic at such a low level would be pick up noise...but it didn't! Hope it works for you too, just turn the level right down. Give it a try and if you still have problems drop us another line, i'd be happy to try and help.

Cheers

 

[HotMess]

Thanks h8tingw7