How to make my microphone louder without it distorting?

[NicsterV]

I have an Audio Technica AT-2035 microphone, and although it sounds really good, it is kind of quiet. However, if I turn up the volume on the microphone, it will distort and not sound good. I noticed that if I compare my videos on YouTube to another person's videos with the same microphone, their video sounds a lot louder, yet not distorted. What can I do? Do I maybe need to put the compressor on in my audio interface? I have the Line 6 UX2, if it helps. Thanks!

 

[Tarmack]

FIrst, here's how your mic and interface should be set up. Mic into XLR input 1/L, gain knob for that input set to 12 o'clock or 50%. The +48V button should be pressed in as that's your phantom power to push the mic. Then in windows, you should right click on the little taskbar speaker, choose recording, find the input volume and make sure it's at 50% as well.

Record a test track and check your volume to ensure no clipping it occurring. Then progressively increase both the line 6 gain and the windows input gain by little incremental bits until just before any clipping occurs in your recording. You never want to max out one gain knob while another is still underused because very few gain sources are perfectly clean and the top 20-30% of the knob range is where the audio starts to turn to garbage.

Also, make sure that your mic position is correct. 6-8 inches distance from your mouth and 45 degrees to the left or to the right is about where that mic is designed to be placed.

 

[NicsterV]

thanks dude