Samson g-track distortion

[armansrsa]

Hi all

I am new to homerecording and bought myself a USB mic to start off. Its a G-track by samson, i have been using it about a month now and every now and again there is a distortion when i record guitar acoustically, it seems that the mic distorts before it gets into red in cubase, input levels are about 2/3 of the way up in cubase to be exact. I have read a few posts on this on the net but there really isnt anything that has helped me as of yet so any help would be appreciated

Cheers
Arman

[brandondrury]

Do you have any control over the level of the microphone itself (before Cubase)? Normally, you'd have some kind of preamp that allows you to adjust the level of the mic. With these USB gadgets, I have no idea.

Brandon

[armansrsa]

yes in my windows OS. You know the little speaker icon you get in the bottom right? well if i click on that it brings up the grey mixer panel and if i got to properties in the menu i get to a screen where i can choose which sound card to use, the USB mic comes up as an option and this gives me a panel with 4 options, but does this matter?? In cubase i get the levels about 2 3rds but it distorts before it reaches a reasonable clean recording level.

thanks for your help
A

[brandondrury]

the USB mic comes up as an option and this gives me a panel with 4 options, but does this matter??

What are the 4 options?

In cubase i get the levels about 2 3rds but it distorts before it reaches a reasonable clean recording level.

How hot are you trying to record your levels? If it were me, I'd record at softer levels where the mic still sounds good.

I've never used a USB microphone, but there is no way they can these mics without significant cutbacks somewhere in the chain. Combining the audio interface and the microphone is quite a task for $100-200. I'd make sure other people with the same USB microphone aren't having the same problem.

Brandon