Hi JC,

Trumpet is my main instrument. and Flugel, of course.

First things first, the cable used to connect that Beta 58 to the input of the Mic Preamp should have an XLR three pin connector at both ends. If you are attempting to use a cable that terminates in a 1/4" plug, that right there is the problem.

I'm suspecting that you are having what we call Gain Staging problems.

That can be due to setting Mic Gain at input too low, or too high even, for the recording part of the issue.

Then there is the Playback side, in which the gain of the track(s) being played back can sound "thin" if the software sound device output settings to the amplified speakers is not set high enough to drive the amp input properly. Here it is not good to send a lower signal from the pc and then attempt to turn it up at the monitor speaker amp. The opposite should be the case. Fortunately, the softwares feature both Input and Output VU meters and they should be your guide to what's going on there.

As for Close Mic'ing Trumpet and Flugel, that may not be a good idea if what you are going to play varies in dynamic level throughout. Might try backing off the Mic distance, but no too much.

Set your Recording Input levels such that the Input VU meter is hovering at about the -6dB level and no higher when you play as loud as you can.

I'd also advise solving one problem at a time here, concentrate on getting a good sound from the Dry track before even attempting with any Reverb (The PGMusic supplied Reverb plugin can sound world class with Trumpets and Flugels, btw, but that, too, takes a bit of a learning curve as to what the settings do and how they work, what the desired ambience is and should be, things like that.

The Beta 58 is not the problem no matter what other internet experts might want to tell you. It can turn in a great performance with these instruments. There are just those folks who want to tell you that a more expensive mic, a larger diaphragm mic, a Phantom Powered mic, etc. is "better". That's not entirely true. For example, the big condenser diaphragm can be problematic in that it may pick up more of the sound of an acoustically bad room in the home environment. Or it may prove to be very sensitive and the large dynamic range the horns are easily capable of producing can drive the input into distortion where the Shure Brothers' classic dynmaic mic design would prove much more forgiving.

There's a learning curve to recording on computers, but fear not, you have posted in the right place to obtain that necessary knowledge as painlessly as possible.


--Mac

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