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Signal still clipping when preamp is all the way down


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Hi,

I primarily record drums and have a rather annoying issue. Even when my interface preamps are turned all the way down, I am still clipping my channel strip in Logic. This happens with dynamic and condenser mics. I really want to achieve proper gain staging at the source, but this is making it nearly impossible. Am I missing something?

 

Thank you all for your help!

 

Gear:

Logic Pro X 10.2

 

Interface : M-Audio FastTrack Ultra 8 USB

 

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-iinch, Mid 2015)

OS X Yosemite 10.10.5

500GB HD

2.2 GHz Intel Core i7

16GB 1600 MHz DDR3

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Thanks for the response guys.

 

There are no plugins on the channel strips. It clips when the tracks are record enabled and when Logic is stopped and no recording is happening. It will then in turn clip during recording and during playback. My interface is not clipping, just Logic.

 

Side note: I'm not beating the crap out of my drums either. I am playing at medium to low volumes (... said every drummer ever...) :lol:

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What interface are you using? Does it have an option to set the output between "consumer" (-10) and "Professional" (+4)?

 

If it's not clipping at the interface, then there's extra gain coming from somewhere.

 

Even if you were absolutely smashing the drums with a hammer, that's not loud enough to make most dynamic mics clip with no gain.

I've recorded gun shots during sound design sessions with dynamic mics about a foot away from the side of the chamber, and I still needed the gain to be around 9-10 o'clock.

 

Dynamic mics typically require tons of gain to get a clean, usable signal. That's less true being close mic'ed on a drum...but it's still not gonna clip at zero.

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