PG Music Home Forums PG Music Product Forums Band-in-a-Box for Windows My tiny small voice again

Some months ago I had a problem with the very low audio input recording level that others have had with BIAB. So I disoposed of my USB mic, bought a mixer and compressor, and I've just got this up and working - but with the same problem.

When I want to record a vocal over a BB2010 track, *I check the record levels, and both record levels are fine for the song*. I even have to drop the slider on my mixer a little to keep it out of the red (I'm avoiding using the limiter). But when I come to play back what I've recorded, all I get is a tiny quiet voice in the background behind the music.

All details are below, but my mixer has a 24-bit audio box supplied with it. I've tried using the standard windows USB Audio Codec, the ASIO4All, and most recently the Behringer model-specific Audio Codec in both ME and ASIO, but without any more success.

Playback of the midi/RealTracks music through the mixer and speakers is fine. If I up the main mix sliders when the mic is open, my voice comes across perfectly over the speakers. Because the record-level meter for the voice input shows as perfect, it has to be something about the record process itself.

- I have a Behringer 1222FX, tied in to an Composer Pro MDX2200 (though I've tried it without), with a Behringer UCA-200 audio box. Because I don't have a set of jack to phono leads, the output from the sound box is fed back in to the input phonos on the mixer.

- I've checked Windows control panel. The sound box is showing in the Device Manager audio listing, for which properties shows both driver and mixer as working properly. Sounds and Audio devices shows the sound recording and playback device correctly selected (Windows default or Behringer depending on which I'm trying). The windows default had no mixer capability, but this is apparently added by the Behringer driver, and the record volume is set at max, not muted, and all the sliders are set to high. 20db boost is added in advanced settings. The hardware test gives a positive result.

- In BB Preferences > Audio Settings, Behringer USB Audio is selected for both audio input and output, and the settings imported from the soundcard fine.

- But when I come to record, and click on the button to set the recording level or tst the recording level meter, I get the error: "There is a problem with your sound hardware. To install mixer drivers, go to Control Panel, Add Hardware, click printer and other hardware, and then click audio hardware." When I do this, it lets me select the Behringer driver again, but says it's installed and working correctly! I've tried rebooting, but it makes no difference.

I'm running Windows XPSP3 and BB2010 Build 295 on a 2793MHz Pentium D dual core processor with 8Gb RAM.

Why does everything on the system tell me it's working correctly, but in both error messages about a missing mixer and in the resulting low volume, BB makes it clear that it's not?

Curious - help appreciated!

Hi Digihound,

Hopefully, some of the heavyweights here will kick in with some good advice. I can't quite get my head around how you are trying to set things up, lol.
In the meantime, this might be some good reading.
http://www.free-instrumentals.com/behringeruca200.html

Hope this helps.
Jim

You need to look at the levels of your recorded voice track with a separate program and see if they are very low. Audacity is free and I think will do this. Maybe Real Band will do this also, I'm not sure. If the levels are OK, then it's a problem with the level settings on playback.

If your vocal is on a track in RB, then the audio edit window in RB has a db scale on the left side.If you use the arrows on the bottom or left of the audio edit window, you can scroll through the track and check the overall level of the vocal.

If you determine it needs a volume boost, highlight the whole track, go to Edit - Audio Effects - Gain Change then boost it the required dbs - this may not solve your initial problem but it will allow you to bring your vocal audio up.

Cheers - Ian

Hi,

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- But when I come to record, and click on the button to set the recording level or tst the recording level meter, I get the error: "There is a problem with your sound hardware. To install mixer drivers, go to Control Panel, Add Hardware, click printer and other hardware, and then click audio hardware." When I do this, it lets me select the Behringer driver again, but says it's installed and working correctly! I've tried rebooting, but it makes no difference.

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There is most likely not a problem audio device. Band-in-a-Box is just trying to launch the Windows Record Control Mixer (same as if you double-click the speaker icon in your task bar and go to Options-Recording), and your sound card apparently doesn't use that. Instead, you can probably set this in your sound card's software.

Quote:

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When I want to record a vocal over a BB2010 track, *I check the record levels, and both record levels are fine for the song*

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Where are you checking this? Are you looking at the Band-in-a-Box VU meters?

I am having the same problem with my audio recording level in BB2010. The VU meter indicates as much and more vocal volume being recorded relative to the instrument tracks, but on playback I can barely hear the voice.

You said, "go to Edit - Audio Effects - Gain Change", but I can't find those commands anywhere and there is no mention of gain in the index. Any help would be appreciated.

Edit ------------------

Never mind, I found the correct command sequence:

Audio -> Edit Audio -> Adjust level of region of Wave file (permanent)

Then enter the number of dB to increase the vocal track level.