Input-Microphone is very quiet on Komplete Audio 2

mawo
mawo Member Posts: 7 Member
edited October 22 in Komplete General

Hello,

i use an Beyerdynamic M90 Pro X connected via XLR to my Komplete Audio 2 on a Macbook Pro (M1 Pro) with MacOS Sonoma.

When i record my Voice within Adobe Audition, i can see that the Voice is very quiet and also there is no really Waveform visible. I need to turn the Gain nob to Max to barely hear my Voice, but this introduces a lot of noise aswell. I tested this with a second Komplete Audio 2 and the same issue there. I also tested this on a Windows Laptop and the same issue is there aswell. I also noticed on the Input Levels on the Komplete Audio just the lowest LED is blinking, when talking into the Mic.

A few Months back it was working without any problem.

Maybe someone has an idea? I also ordered a new XLR Cable, in case the old one is broken, even it's just a couple Months old.


Thanks and regards,

Marc

Best Answer

  • mawo
    mawo Member Posts: 7 Member
    Answer ✓

    So, i have RMA'd my Microphone and received now a replacement Unit.

    With the new Mic everything works again fine. So in my case, the Mic was faulty here


    Best regards,

    Marc

Answers

  • DunedinDragon
    DunedinDragon Member Posts: 971 Guru
    edited October 2023

    That sounds to me like you might have a problem with that mic. Also check your settings on your audio interface to make sure nothing has changed there such as impedance on the input. Try plugging it into some form of direct amplification (amp/mixer/powered speaker) to see how it responds.

  • mawo
    mawo Member Posts: 7 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/98881#Comment_98881

    How to check the impedance on the Input on my Audio Interface? Sorry, i'm new to all this stuff^^

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 4,002 mod
    edited October 2023

    Hello,

    have you checked that phantom power is enabled, it's a condenser mic and it needs phantom power. It's a button with 48 volt label but before you press it turn gain down!!

  • mawo
    mawo Member Posts: 7 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/98956#Comment_98956

    Yes, Phantom Power is turned on the whole time.

  • Kubrak
    Kubrak Member Posts: 3,066 Expert

    Maybe the output of mic is too weak? First, I would check with another brand of audiointerface that mic is OK. And if yes, something like Triton preamplifier might help.

    https://www.tritonaudio.com/fethead-phantom

  • mawo
    mawo Member Posts: 7 Member

    Yeah. i will buy a Focusrite and will test with this, to check if the Mic is still working.

    Just wondering why it stopped working properly, because it was working fine 4 Months ago. The Mic itself is also just 5 Months old.

  • SupaReels
    SupaReels Member Posts: 25 Member

    Before you start spending loads of cash on things you may not need I would say that the 48v supply to the mic may have gone down, I say this because I had a very similar problem some years back which turned out to be a broken wire providing the said 48v supply.

    I agree with a comment here asking you to plug this mic into a direct o/p ( turn down 1st ) and see if it provides a strong signal.

    You say you are new to this and so do a double check on your input chain just to confirm your findings, it may be that you have just altered something without realizing .. happens to us all

    Best of luck

  • mawo
    mawo Member Posts: 7 Member

    So, i checked again and this is how my setup look like, also with all the Settings on the Interface:

    IMG_1033.png

    Also, the 48V is switched on:

    IMG_1034.png


    When i then do an Adio recording it looks like this in Adobe Audition:

    Bildschirmfoto 2023-10-08 um 12.14.40.png


    @SupaReels: The broken wire was on the Audio Interface or on/in the Mic itself?

  • Uwe303
    Uwe303 Moderator Posts: 4,002 mod
    edited October 2023

    You can also maybe try the other input, if you have a voltmeter you could try to measure if phantom power is really coming to the microphone. You plug in the xlr cable open up the plug you use on the mic and measure between 1 - 2 and 1 - 3. Maybe you have another mic (or can lend) to test, could be the mic too.

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 12,971 mod

    @mawo I've contatced you by email regarding this issue. My colleagues will need to check a few things to see if it's a hardware issue or not.

  • SupaReels
    SupaReels Member Posts: 25 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/98991#Comment_98991

    My problem was due to the XLR plug .. it had been pulled at some point and the connection to my Scarlett 18i20 had become high resistance and so not working .. Anyway it would seem as though you have customer care looking into your problem so I'm sure you'll get a better result ..

    All the best SM

  • Tom-B
    Tom-B Member Posts: 2 Newcomer
    edited October 2023

    Same Problem here. No acceptable mic levels possible.

    I used to have a professional studio some time ago so I should know what I am doing. I tried several top-notch microphones from my collection with top class XLR cables, such as the AT4050/CM5, AT897, AKG C 391 B. With - all - of them even though they have completely different impedances, the device only produces an acceptable microphone level with the gain(s) fully cranked up to 100 % - with all the disadvantages caused by a preamp in such case, introducing more noise, distortion etc. On top of that I even tried the device on 2 different operating systems - Windows 10 and Linux Mint 21.2. It didn't make any difference at all.

    Maybe in some circumstances the device does not produce enough juice on the phantom power (?) but anyway, my notebook has a USB 3.0 interface and I didn't have any such issues with other gear before.

    I think I need to give my device back which I just obtained yesterday. Before that I will see if NI support can do something about it. I would expect that for an outboard device like this firmware updates could be made available to fix such issues.

  • Tom-B
    Tom-B Member Posts: 2 Newcomer

    Customer service replied - at least quite fast. The recommendation is that for "... further gain we would always suggest using a dedicated outboard preamp. Generally this is a recommended signal chain when using professional microphones."

    Aha. So I should not use the Komplete Audio 2 along with professional microphones. Respectively use it but put a more expensive preamp into the signal chain, just to feed this through the Komplete Audio 2. I will go for a more practicable and reasonable choice: Return this device and buy one of the many other comparable ones, which are capable of doing what they supposed to do.

  • mawo
    mawo Member Posts: 7 Member
    Answer ✓

    So, i have RMA'd my Microphone and received now a replacement Unit.

    With the new Mic everything works again fine. So in my case, the Mic was faulty here


    Best regards,

    Marc

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 12,971 mod

    @mawo Thanks for the update!

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