Solved Soft Recording volume with Blue Yeti, increasing volume distorts audio

[mohawkmoe10]

So I have a Blue Yeti, and I'm an online animator/voice actor. Whenever I record audio on my Blue Yeti (OR any other mic) I record about 4-6 inches from the mic, and turn the gain down enough that the audio doesn't peak as I yell or whatever. This is what you're supposed to do if you don't want your audio levels peaking and making your recording sound horrible and corrupted. However, afterwards, it means I have really quite recordings. Not a problem right? Now that it's recorded right, I can boost the volume of the entire clip afterwards right? WRONG. I'm not an audio expert so I must be missing something. But why in GODS NAME would the audio distort and peak AFTER it's recorded successfully? It's all there, it's all clean audio. If I turn the volume on my speakers all the way up it sounds CRYSTAL CLEAR! All I want to do is do that INSIDE the computer so that when I upload it to youtube people don't have to turn their speakers so far up. But if I increase the clips volume in the computer, it distorts! It sounds awful! Why?! I tried in Sony Acid and Audacity and they both do the same thing! Why?! I seriously don't understand what I'm missing here! I can take sound effects, and recordings made by other producers and crank them up nice and loud, but mine just fall apart! If anyone understands audio stuff, please tell me what I'm doing wrong.

 

[fireberd]

I have a home recording studio using Sonar X1 software.

I don't know about Acid, but it should allow clean recordings. Audacity the same way.

I record, generally, in the -10 level with my recording program, at 24 bits/44.1 Khz. At -10, I have plenty of headroom and can then adjust the levels after the recordings and at mixdown. I export the mix as a standard 16 bit/44.1Khz wav file and then "finalize" whatever I want to do to the song, including levels, with "Goldwave" (an audio editior).

I assume you are converting the audio to MP3? If that is the case, that may be where the distortion is occuring? I find that 128Kb MP3's are very poor and at a minimum use 198 Kb MP3's.

 

[dmoss74]

your main problem is that mic. they have no way of boosting the signal other than the built in computer preamps. secondly, it sounds like your signal chain is screwed up. get the home recording for dummies book. it will explain it all a lot better than trying to answer a post in a forum.

or there are numerous online articles/pages.

in a nutshell, it sounds like you aren't getting a hot enough signal when recording.