Condenser mic is extremely quiet.

[damianbrahm]

I bought an AT2020 and a Scarlett Solo Gen 3 in July, and I've been having consistent issues with the volume level. I should be getting plenty of phantom power from the Scarlett (48V is on), yet my mic is still whisper quiet, even with all my system volume settings to max, speaking into the right side of the microphone, speaking close enough to the microphone, and gain set to a comfortable ~70%. Drivers are all up to date, and all my hardware is new and in good condition. I think it may be a Windows driver issue, or maybe a faulty XLR cable, but I really don't know for sure what the issue is and it's becoming very frustrating.

[geo3]

Does the level indicator ring light up when you talk into it? What color?  What's the sound like out of the headphone port with direct monitor turned on? 

[damianbrahm]

17 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Does the level indicator ring light up when you talk into it? What color?  What's the sound like out of the headphone port with direct monitor turned on? 

I need to basically max it out (95%+ gain) for the indicator ring to light up green. I'm not sure my voice could physically reach a red indicator.

 

It sounds fine out of the monitor, just really quiet, again, unless I max out the gain. In which case it's, unsurprisingly, very distorted.

[geo3]

I would think either the mic is defective or the 48v power isn't working correctly.  Could also be the cable as your guessed. 

[damianbrahm]

20 minutes ago, geo3 said:

I would think either the mic is defective or the 48v power isn't working correctly.  Could also be the cable as your guessed. 

Yeah, I think I'm just going to start replacing hardware until it works. Starting with the XLR cable. Fingers crossed that's it, because if it's the mic or interface, that's gonna be a whole lot more of a pain.

[Omon_Ra]

21 hours ago, damianbrahm said:

Yeah, I think I'm just going to start replacing hardware until it works. Starting with the XLR cable. Fingers crossed that's it, because if it's the mic or interface, that's gonna be a whole lot more of a pain.

Do you have any access to another mixer/audio interface? A friend, or a local shop that would let you troubleshoot on their mixer to see if you get signal?