PreSonus Forums

Hi all,

Using an Audio Technica 2020 with the Studio 24c to do some spoken word vocals. I am having to crank the gain up to around 90% to get an acceptable 'green' level on the input metre and the following waveform. Is this normal? I don't seem to have an issue with noise and the recording sounds ok but this seems very high?






I appreciate this seems like an 'ain't broken, doesn't need fixing' situation but this interface is barely a year old and if there's a hardware issue I'd like to resolve it sooner rather than later with warranty expirations and whatnot. Thanks for feedback in advance.

Totally depends on SPL at the mic. The AT2020 is a side address mic for high SPL levels, i.e. short distance (1ft max) for single vocal use. Are you ticking those boxes?

That being said the track pic you posted looks fine to me

Thanks for the reply. I am indeed. I'm probably about 5 inches away as I speak into it, there's a pop filter in between.

Try singing into the mic, just to see what happens. Imagine you’re speaking/singing to someone who’s standing 10ft behind the mic.

Yeah, like I say I am getting what sounds decent to me and I get a good level but it just seems that i'm cranking the gain up very high to achieve it. Is that expected for this mic is what i'm asking? I would expect it to be around 2 o clock on the dial?

That mic should give a healthy signal, so yeah. I do see there’s +50dB gain range on the 24c pre’s where the live mixers have +60dB. That would put you at the 2 o’clock position. So I think you’re fine because the last 10dB on the live mixers start to give some audible preamp noise so you rather not go there anyway

Ok thanks for your help. Sounds like there's no hardware issues then?

No, I don't think so