Mic pre's too loud even at 0 gain...

[AdamWathan]

I was tracking some drums yesterday and my snare track was DANGEROUSLY close to clipping with the gain on the pre set to zero... I ended up having all of the gain knobs across the whole board set to zero, kick, toms and snare, except for the overheads because they have a -10db pad that I had turned on...

Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I'm using a Saffire Pro 26 i/o....

 

[ryanojohn]

is there no pad on the saffire? otherwise try In-Line attenuators... it's not uncommon that every mic is padded on a drum session I do...

 

[AdamWathan]

is there no pad on the saffire? otherwise try In-Line attenuators... it's not uncommon that every mic is padded on a drum session I do...

No unfortunately to my knowledge at least there is no pad on the preamps which I think is pretty fucking stupid... If I'm missing something and they are hidden somewhere in the options that I can't find, please somebody fill me in

 

[AdamWathan]

Looking at the specs, the mic pre's on the Saffire have a +13db to +60db range. So even at zero they are still +13db. Retarded. I'm going to return it to today and order the new M-Audio Profire 2626.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

As far as I know, the 2626 isn't available yet. I was on the phone with them Thursday.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

That sucks. Sometimes this happens on the UX2 but honestly since it's a cheap interface I fucking fail to care

 

[AdamWathan]

As far as I know, the 2626 isn't available yet. I was on the phone with them Thursday.

Yeah they are supposed to start shipping first quarter of this year. I'm still gonna order one, even if I don't get it until the end of March. Between now and then, I'll only be home for a total of 3 weeks where I'd even be able to use it so I can live with the wait. Man I'm really bummed about the Saffire, what an absolutely horrid design flaw.

 

[broken81]

Yea my digi002 and behringer ada8000 both don't have pads on the mic pre's. None of my mic's have them either. I had to buy 2 pads or anuators or whatever those xlr things are you hook to the mic. There like 20.00 a pop but I'm really looking to upgrade to some adat mic pre's with pads like digimax lt or something.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

That's why I love the Fireface 800. It's got a "lo gain" mode for really loud sources. 1 click & suddenly, everything drops into a safer region. Wonderful stuff.

 

[greyskull]

jesus,you should try using an api! ive only NOT had to use the pad once.
on an sm7

 

[Torniojaws]

That's why I love the Fireface 800. It's got a "lo gain" mode for really loud sources. 1 click & suddenly, everything drops into a safer region. Wonderful stuff.

There's one sucker for that on the Fireface 400 though. The Lo Gain mode is only available for inputs 5-8, which do not have DI. I'm having a small problem when recording DI guitars: the peaks sometimes hit the red on it, even with the pad enabled. But those clips only occur during the absolute loudest strums you can get with a guitar, ie. maybe once or twice per song in a usual DI recording session. But enough to really bug you.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Yea my digi002 and behringer ada8000 both don't have pads on the mic pre's. None of my mic's have them either. I had to buy 2 pads or anuators or whatever those xlr things are you hook to the mic. There like 20.00 a pop but I'm really looking to upgrade to some adat mic pre's with pads like digimax lt or something.

Ya i ran into the same problem w/ the behringer. you get what you pay for.

 

[AdamWathan]

Well the Saffire Pro has been returned, waiting on the Profire 2626 now!

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

I was tracking some drums yesterday and my snare track was DANGEROUSLY close to clipping with the gain on the pre set to zero... I ended up having all of the gain knobs across the whole board set to zero, kick, toms and snare, except for the overheads because they have a -10db pad that I had turned on...

Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I'm using a Saffire Pro 26 i/o....

I have the same problem on snares with my 002. Seems like it's just something some of us have to live with for a while.