Can't hear the vocals while recording, need help.

[Larcher]

Ok so, I've got this vocal booth setup at home, and all of the bands that go through, they tell me they can't hear themselves in the headphones while recording (music playing in the headphones of course) Thing is, if I turn up the microphone output on my interface, it will clip. Is there an alternative?

 

[Whammy]

Get a headphone amplifier. The musician can turn up their headphones all they want.

 

[Larcher]

Thanks friend. Any idea how much these go for ish?

edit: I found this one http://www.long-mcquade.com/product...er/HA400_-_4_Channel_Stereo_Headphone_Amp.htm

but from what I read, this is only used so you can plug more than 1 set of headphones so more than 1 person can listen to the mix. I don't see how this would increase the microphone volume in the vocalists headphones?

 

[Whammy]

You can get very cheap ones.

Would you mind going through step by step how you send out a headphone signal? In & out the box.
No need going buying something if it's fixable

 

[Larcher]

Sure.

I have my vocal booth setup with a SM7B mic, then I run that through my interface to record said vocals. My interface is the Presonus Firestudio. I then plug the headphone jack into the presonus so the vocalist can hear the music while recording his vocals.

This is where the problem begins. If the music isin't loud enough, they can't hear it when they scream over it, but when I turn the volume of the headphone knob on my interface up, only the music goes up, not the microphone.

 

[Whammy]

Is the microphone going to the headphones at all?

 

[Larcher]

No, just directly into the interface, and then the headphones are plugged into the 'headphone OUT' plug, so he can hear the sound into his headphones

edit: he can hear the headphones at low volume, but if I turn the volume knob for the headphones up (on my interface) the microphone volume IN the headphones does not go up.

 

[Whammy]

I'm stating the obvious here but only to rule it out.
Can you route the microphone channel output to the main output/headphones output?

If the music goes to the output of the Presonus then the vocals should too, unless they are routed somewhere else.

 

[Larcher]

The vocals do get routed to the output of the presonus, it's just that if I turn the volume knob for the headphones on the presonus, only the music goes up, and not the microphone, but if I turn the mic volume up, it will clip because then the mic will be louder int he recording aswell as the headphones.

 

[Whammy]

Yeah but why does the volume pot only turn up the music? What is making the vocal channel independent?

 

[Larcher]

I'm not sure, but when you turn up the volume, it doesn't turn up the volume of the mic in the headphones. If it helps the mic is plugged via XLR into my interface

 

[Narrillnezzurh]

Do you monitor direct from the interface, or out of your DAW?

 

[Whammy]

I would imagine the mic is direct from the interface. It should still react to the volume pot changes

 

[Larcher]

From the interface, yes.

 

[Orsinium]

You could try having duplicates of the vocal track and get the one you are recording to the proper level you want and take off the output just so it records silently then the other track you can go wild with until the vocalist likes the level. Note the inputs will both be the same and I assume you will have to have both active just only record arm the one without the output. EDIT: by active I mean input monitoring.

 

[troyguitar]

My interface just has a blend knob to set the level of playback (music) vs monitoring (vocals). Do you not have that on your interface?

If not, you will have to enable software monitoring in the DAW and crank up the vocal track in the DAW.

 

[greglecompte]

it would be better to use the outputs of the firestudio as sends and maybe get a cheep berhinger mixer with 3 inputs or so and give them controll of the volume of them self the mix and reverb for the vocal personally i use the furman hds-6 its sends 6 channels through cat 5 cable to receiving mixers that the artist can mix this is what it looks like http://www.samash.com/p/Furman_HDS6...&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CNLa4dHIjrUCFQeynQodUwoAFw

 

[Larcher]

thanks for all of the advice guys!

 

[aturaya]

Am I missing something here? Is there something preventing you from monitoring the mic through your DAW?

 

[JohnIce]

Am I missing something here? Is there something preventing you from monitoring the mic through your DAW?

My thoughts exactly... seems like the OP isn't using software monitoring. Is stuff like reverb and compression audible while you're tracking vocals, or can you only hear them when playing back? If so it's definitely the software monitoring that needs to be switched on within your DAW.