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I have a Blue Snowball and Behringer C1U. I plug them into my Macbook Pro Retina via USB. I've tried recording both on OSX (via Adobe Audition) and with the USB devices connected directly via Parallels to a Windows 8.1 VM, and in both of these, my voice can hardly be heard.

Here you can see I have the levels turned all the way up on the Behringer in Windows:

Levels

And yet this is the loudest the recording can get, when speaking at a normal volume about 4 inches away from the microphone.

Recording in Audacity

What can I do to make these microphones record at a decent volume?

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  • If you move the microphone level all the way down, does the recording go quiet? I'm wondering if that volume control is having any effect at all. Also, do you have a powered USB hub around by chance? I'm curious if your laptop is cranking out enough current for the mic preamp.
    – Brad
    Dec 8, 2013 at 6:40
  • If I adjust the level down to 80% it is almost dead quiet. USB hub - no I don't have one to test with.
    – Paul Stovell
    Dec 8, 2013 at 6:43
  • I've had the same issue in Parallels with a Rode Podcaster mic. If I open the OSX and Windows input device windows side by side and start talking, the meter in OSX moves up to about 70%, and windows meter to maybe 5%. Both hear me, but it is super quiet in Windows.
    – rally25rs
    Aug 1, 2014 at 2:02

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I see you are using Parallels. Try checking if there're settings in Parallels itself and/or check the microphone level in the host Mac OS.

Another option will be checking if there's some multimedia program that comes with the Parallels drivers. For examples, in ThinkPad, you get a program called Dolby, without which playback gets very low, and has different presets that control the speakers and microphone. Maybe Parallels has something similar.

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