In this video, we're going to look at connecting a microphone to your audio interface and setting the levels appropriately. And, while it seems like a simple thing, there are some standard procedures that you should follow every time you're connecting a microphone. You want to be careful when connecting a microphone, because these are those points were you really could possibly damage your equipment. but more likely, you could just cause horrible feedback, and you really want to watch out every time you connect things. You want to avoid the sound of actually making the connection from going through your equipment. If I have the speakers on and the levels set before connecting up my microphone, there's a very good chance, I'll get a loud pop or click that runs through my computer, through my speakers. Again, possibly damage the speakers, and just possibly hurting your own ears. Also, if your microphone's on and your speakers are on, you could get very loud, kind of ear shattering feedback, which we also want to avoid. So, we're going to talk about just the procedure for connecting a microphone. And the first thing you want to do, you know, after you get your interface working with your computer is going to re, to reduce the input gain all the way down. Now, the input gain is going to be the most important knob you're going to adjust while recording. Because this is going to set the level that gets to the A to D converter, the analog-digital converter. And it will almost always be a knob on the outside of the device that you have to manually control. And we're going to set that all the way to zero. So, I'm turning that input gain all the way down. And that way, as I connect things, I know that signal's not going to go through my entire system. One thing to aware of though, even if you turn your input gain all the way down, signal can still be going through your system. It's not a mute. Sometimes some interfaces will have a mute button, and use it if you can. But having the input gain all the way down does not guarantee that no signal will go through your system. The next thing I'll do is turn phantom power off. Because this is a condenser microphone, if phantom power is off, the signal will do anything. The microphone cannot work. It functions almost like an on off switch for the microphone. Another really nice thing about condenser microphones in the studio. So, by turning the phantom power off, I can make sure that as I connect this, there will be no loud pops. It's best to have phantom power off before you connect the microphone. Now, I want to connect my mic up to my interface. we'll be using an XLR cable for that, and one thing to be aware of is that the XLR cable does have a male and a female end. The mic itself is male, so, I just like to think mic is male. So, the microphone is male, I'll also take the female end and connect it up to my microphone first. Then I'll take the male end and connect it to my interface. And I know, since the input gain is all the way down and the phantom power is off, that I'm not sending that clicking sound through all of my system. The next thing I want to do is turn on phantom power, which really is like turning on the microphone. And right away, I'm actually seeing level running through my system. Our next procedure is to set the level where we want it to be in our final recording. And this is going to be the most important step of your kind of recording, of your kind of prerecording process. You have to get this step perfectly, and it's going to be a knob on the outside of your device to set it. Now, the goal here is to get a nice solid level. We want a good signal, but we never want to go over. so, if anything err on the lower side. It's okay to bring the level up in the computer. What we really don't want is distortion, and distortion happens when you go all the way above kind of of the maximum that we can have here. Now, when I turn this trim knob, what we're manipulating is the microphone preamp. And we've talked about that a couple of times in the course already, but what we're looking at is getting the really low level from the microphone up to that standard operating level, that standard line level. So, the general procedure is to have your artist or if it's yourself, your going to be singing, talking, playing, whatever at the kind of loudest place you'll be in the piece of music. And then your going to be adjusting the input level until you get a nice solid recording. So, as your setting your levels, you want to make sure that if, if it does have colors, you want it to be in the yellow at maximum. Never be anywhere near the red. If it's like this interface and doesn't give you colors, but has a kind of bar, keep it around the three quarter range, but never have it get toward the very top. One important consideration is really to look at the meters on your device on the outside of your device. There are many place within the computer that the signal can be monitored. there are output levels and bus levels, which won't always be true. But the level on the device itself will be the true input level, and is what you're going to need to use when you're setting your levels. So, what we have here looks pretty good. And I'd be ready to record. Now, something to be wary of is meters aren't always perfectly true. And again, you really don't want to ever come near that red. Error on the side of a little bit lower. the other side of that too, musicians always get a little bit louder when the recording actually starts. So, you're usually better off just keeping a little lower. Getting a good, clean, undistorted recording and then bringing up the level a bit later within the computer. When you're done with recording, you want to be concious with how you disconnect your microphone as well. And we're going to go basically in reverse order. The one thing I'd like to mention is that when you do shut off phantom power, it can cause a click to go through your system. So, I'd suggest when you start disconnecting devices to turn off your monitors, or turn down your output volume before you start disconnecting anything. Once you've turned down your speakers or turned off your speakers, turn the mic gain all the way down. Then turn off vent and power, and then disconnect your microphone.