Trouble Balancing Track Play/Record Volumes

[david40]

I am having a hell of a time getting my sound balanced. I set up my microphone to a proper level where it's not clipping, but when I record or play, the other prerecorded instrumental tracks are way louder than my vocal track. If I try to raise the vocal track volume it clips, and it seems like I should not need to dramatically reduce the  volume of the other tracks because they are at a normal volume. Please, What am I doing wrong???

Thanks

[Byron Dickens]

Not reducing the volume of your other tracks.

[mark skinner]

Are you using an interface with "direct monitoring" turned on ? 

[John Vere]

What you are doing wrong is a simple matter of not understanding how to use your DAW or your interface yet. You really need to do some homework before jumping in and trying to record 

 

[Michael McBroom]

I ran into this very same issue when I first started recording with CW. In my case, it was an electric guitar. Same issue, the guitar was way soft. There are several controls you have at your disposal, both on your interface and within Cakewalk. You need to understand how each affects the level. From there, you can choose how you want to proceed. 

On my setup, I've found that I can only barely crack open the channel volume or the signal will peg the meter. But this is a line-out signal coming from a guitar amp. I then balance the volume of that signal with the playback using the AI's monitor mix control. This is a good way to bring up the volume of the instrument being recorded in reference to the music. But that's playback, not recording volume. The recording volume is going to happen as a result of a balance of moves within the audio channel, and you have a number at your disposal. 

But before you do any of that, before you consider my "advice," I recommend you take John's advice and take the time to read through his tutorial on CWbBL.

[Old Joad]

Do you have all your tracks going to your master bus?

Set the output to a bus like this.

and then control the volume from the Bus below the Master:

this is an easy way for just getting started.

(Click the image to make it bigger)

Edited September 11, 2022 by Old Joad

[John Vere]

Just to clarify how things work. 
All input signals are 100% controlled by your audio interfaces gain settings. Some interfaces also have software mixers so it it super important to read the manual for your interface to have 100% understanding of signal levels. 
Personally I would only ever use a proper audio interface for recording audio just for this reason alone.  
You could shut the level controls in Cakewalk right off and it will make no difference to the signal level that is recorded- OK got that?  
 

Most all audio interfaces come with a monitor setting that allows you to blend the DAW playback with the input signal.
The ability to mix this either with a front panel control or in the software mixer is also important to understand.  if your interface has a mix control it will be marked with something like input/computer.  If it’s a software mixer you need to learn about how it works using a tutorial or the instructions.  They are all different and some are overly complicated.  
 

On the 4 interfaces I own this does not involve making any adjustments inside of Cakewalk. I simply either move the balance control or adjust the software mixer. Generally the blend/ balance control is at 12 o clock.  If it isn’t then you might want to review your levels in Cakewalk.

Heres another audio system fact that is misunderstood. 
A lot of people seem to think you use input echo. Absolutely for midi tracks but wrong for audio as if you turn it on you are now hearing the input as it passes through all that processing and out the back end. It has now gone from your mike to the interface A/D converter then USB system, buffers any effect on the track might add latency, more buffers and the back out the USB to the D/A converter to your headphones or monitors. This adds an average of around 10 ms on most peoples systems. So you will hear that as a delay. Really the only time you would use input echo is to play a guitar into a guitar sim VST.