Duet 1 issue in High Sierra, Need new audio interface

Thanks for the explanations guys, I'm going to stop adjusting the mic IN level for good and touch only the track Gain to adjust monitoring level. I don't doubt you guys for a second.

Ploki, you simply say "it doesn't work that way" which is super hard for me to understand but I accept!

That's good to know about denoising utility, gate, etc.

triplets, I don't even know what "circuit" noise is, but I'm sure I don't want any so I'll take your word for it. Thanks!

I like that built-in limiter.

triplets, I don't even know what "circuit" noise is, but I'm sure I don't want any so I'll take your word for it. Thanks!

If you ever cranked a stereo receiver, or an amp, or anything with enough volume all the way up, and then the music or sound is not coming out because you didn't hit play yet or you stopped it, you still hear noise or hiss. That's circuitry noise.

Thanks for the explanations guys, I'm going to stop adjusting the mic IN level for good and touch only the track Gain to adjust monitoring level. I don't doubt you guys for a second.

 

Ploki, you simply say "it doesn't work that way" which is super hard for me to understand but I accept!

Okay let me try it this way.

Think of the input gain as a fader in logic. If you bring it up, you bring everything in the track up. If you bring it down, you bring everything in the track down.

if you compress (limit), you will actually bring only the vocals down, but the A/C and computer will be unaffected by compression and therefore louder!

if you wish to remove noise between parts of your singing, use a gate or a denoising utility, or just cut them out manually. Gain on your microphone is to get a decent recording level (before digital, to tape, because you needed to hit certain sweetspot so you didn't have too much noise becuase tape noise was higher than digital is), and in digital, to get a decent level before clipping. (but digital is much more forgiving in this regard, if you go as low as -50dB you can still end up with useful recording)

so when you do +10dB gain on your vocals, you also do +10dB gain on your A/C, computer, etc, because that's all coming to your microphone. (and also circuit noise, as triplets pointed out). The circuit noise is any noise introduced in your analogue path, from the microphone, preamp, analogue path in the converter itself.

More expensive doesn't meany more/less noisey in this case! Some microphone (some tubes mics) and some microphone preamps which are highly regarded have more noise than some other less expensive equipment, this is just the way it works.

before digital, to tape, because you needed to hit certain sweetspot so you didn't have too much noise becuase tape noise was higher than digital is)

It's a shame this is unnecessarily carried over literally to the digital world:

"Record as loud as possible, otherwise you're not using all the bits!"

before digital, to tape, because you needed to hit certain sweetspot so you didn't have too much noise becuase tape noise was higher than digital is)

 

It's a shame this is unnecessarily carried over literally to the digital world:

 

"Record as loud as possible, otherwise you're not using all the bits!"

i agree, generally it just results in more ruined recordings and makes iZotope money for its declipper but serves no other purpose anymore.

perhaps in the early days of 16bit DATs it made sense? But that's been decades ago.