Insufficient input gain recording audio over USB Audio

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johntopley
Posts: 5
Joined: 21:20, 29 December 2017

Insufficient input gain recording audio over USB Audio

Post by johntopley »

Hi,

I’m a newbie to the world of Roland Boutiques and DAWs.

I’ve been playing about hooking up my SH-01A to Reaper via a USB cable to my MacBook. After following this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1iHnkqiXA - I can successfully capture MIDI events to one track and audio to a second track. So far so good. The problem I’m having is that the audio waveform in Reaper looks very shallow to me i.e. there isn’t much amplitude. Certainly not as much as shown in the video.

Has anyone else had this issue? Should I be investing in a dedicated USB audio interface and running the SH-01A’s audio output to the interface’s 1/4 inch jack input so I can boost the input gain if required? I’m trying to understand if running everything over the USB cable should work OK.

Many thanks,

John
hafizimran
Posts: 7
Joined: 15:47, 23 January 2018

Re: Insufficient input gain recording audio over USB Audio

Post by hafizimran »

Hi John, I am having the same problem too. I connect and record the SH-01a via USB into Logic Pro X and the input gain is appreciably very low. A few people have commented the same. Of course I can connect the SH-01a via audio cables to my mixer and boost the levels there, but it doesn't resolve the fact that the original output out of my SH-01a is very (very) low.
johntopley wrote:Hi,

I’m a newbie to the world of Roland Boutiques and DAWs.

I’ve been playing about hooking up my SH-01A to Reaper via a USB cable to my MacBook. After following this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ1iHnkqiXA - I can successfully capture MIDI events to one track and audio to a second track. So far so good. The problem I’m having is that the audio waveform in Reaper looks very shallow to me i.e. there isn’t much amplitude. Certainly not as much as shown in the video.

Has anyone else had this issue? Should I be investing in a dedicated USB audio interface and running the SH-01A’s audio output to the interface’s 1/4 inch jack input so I can boost the input gain if required? I’m trying to understand if running everything over the USB cable should work OK.

Many thanks,

John
Crumb
Posts: 16
Joined: 00:15, 2 March 2017

Re: Insufficient input gain recording audio over USB Audio

Post by Crumb »

Hi guys,

I had the same issue, using Logic 9. This will work for Logic X. Not sure about Reaper but I don't see why not.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=51965&p=300042#p300042

Going in USB gives a clean signal but it's really low. Add a compressor to the channel strip and turn up the gain. Failing that, buy a sound card. Focusrite Scarlets are very good, but there are multiple others to choose from.

Hope that helps!
johntopley
Posts: 5
Joined: 21:20, 29 December 2017

Re: Insufficient input gain recording audio over USB Audio

Post by johntopley »

I fixed my issue in the end by buying a Presonus AudioBox iTwo audio interface.
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