Hiss - either too much hiss or too little volume, help!

[AngryMonkey]

Hey all,
I would really appreciate some help as im pulling my hair out here.

I have the following very simple setup:

Shure SM58 Mic -> Presonus FP10 (FireWire) -> Cubase SX3

If I set all my FP10 gain nobs to unity (straight up/centred) the volume on the PC barly registers. I figure this is fine as the SM58 needs a fair bit of gain.

So I turn the gain up on the FP10 so the volume in Cubase is fine but I can hear lots of hiss.

I know the FP10 doesnt have the best preamps but surly this very simple setup should give me a decent hiss free signal?

Logically it would seem that I need to turn the gain down on the FP10 so to illiminate the hiss and then turn the gain up in cubase to increase the volume, is that the right way to do it?

Thanks!
AM.

[jb4674]

Is the 48v phantom power button turned on for the bank of channels you have your SM58 plugged in? If it's not, try turning on the switch and lower your gain on that channel and see what happens. If the button is on, try turning it off and turn up the gain on the channel.

Jimmy

[String7th]

The gain knobs can all be at zero unless you are using them. Make sure your input in Cubase is turned on under the VST Inputs menu, and also make sure you're using a mono channel on the tack you are recording. Make all EQ flat, no effect inserts, start talking into the mic and raise the gain on FP10 to the point the clipping light blinks, then turn the gain back down slightly so the clipping light does not show up at all. I own a FP10 and that clipping means no more room.

[brandondrury]

I know the FP10 doesnt have the best preamps but surly this very simple setup should give me a decent hiss free signal?

The problem here is you are recording a low volume source with a low output mic through a preamp that gets noisy when you push it. The best solution in this situation is to toss a compressor plugin on the source you are tracking and boost the output gain by 10-15dB even if you aren't doing any compressing. This isn't an ideal solution, but it should work fine in your case.

Is the 48v phantom power button turned on for the bank of channels you have your SM58 plugged in? If it's not, try turning on the switch and lower your gain on that channel and see what happens. If the button is on, try turning it off and turn up the gain on the channel.

Phantom power should not have any effect on dynamic mics.

Brandon