[Leocat]

Hi.

Im a 45 year old newbie from Christchurch in New Zealand.
I was very active in bands in my teens and 20's and did some studio recording but only as a musican, not an engineer.

Well here we are a little further down life's road and in the last year or so I have become interested in home recording - (I still have a bunch of songs to record and many new stories to tell).

I decided to do some research and read solidily for 6 to 8 months on everything I could get my hands on. There is actually alot of information out there and I read widely, understanding very little!

Anyway, at Xmas time I purchased the Tascam US144 and this came with Cubase LE. I set this up okay on a PC I built up myself to okay(ish) specs and did some recording with MIDI, Acoustic and electric guitars and vocals etc using my Rode NT1-A.

Didn't seem to have any problems getting the signal levels right and was able to control clipping etc. My first few attempts were far from grammy performances but I learned enough to know that (1), I love it and (2), I wanted to invest my learning time into a more comprehensive software package that would last me for a few years at least.

So I upgraded to Cubase Studio 4. I immediately noticed how much clearer and more depth my recordings had. The problem is that I just cannot seem to record anything without a whole lot of distortion, static and clipping etc. This is true of using guitars through the 1/4 inch plugs and the Rode NT1-A through the XLR inputs and MIDI. I have tried adjusting the settings on the Tascam US144 and in the Cubase mixer window yet even when I record at low levels with the meter well below 0 db, the sound is still crap. When I go back to Cubase LE to record, everything works okay.

What am I doing wrong?

Leocat
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Cubase Studio 4
Tascam US144
Rode NT1-A
Wharfdale DM100
20 Year old Yamaha Dynamic Mic
Korg pa50
Korg padKONTROL
Fender Strat
Ibanez Artwood