Hi everyone!, This is my second post and I am loving my MOXF more each day. Here is my question:

Every time I record the internal sounds of the MOXF on my DAW using the MOXF internal audio interface I get very low volumes no matter how much I crank up the volume on the keyboard itself. I have resorted to normalize my recordings in order to get decent levels. The signal from the MOXF is clean and clear since the normalizing is roughly 10 to 14 db and the wave file still remains clear and usable. I wonder if I am doing something wrong or if this is the normal way my MOXF audio interface works (recording at odd low volumes).

Please someone help me. Just to know if this is normal would be great help. Thanks.

yamill36 - 14 March 2014 09:04 PM

Hi everyone!, This is my second post and I am loving my MOXF more each day. Here is my question:

Every time I record the internal sounds of the MOXF on my DAW using the MOXF internal audio interface I get very low volumes no matter how much I crank up the volume on the keyboard itself. I have resorted to normalize my recordings in order to get decent levels. The signal from the MOXF is clean and clear since the normalizing is roughly 10 to 14 db and the wave file still remains clear and usable. I wonder if I am doing something wrong or if this is the normal way my MOXF audio interface works (recording at odd low volumes).

Please someone help me. Just to know if this is normal would be great help. Thanks.

The instrument volume is different from the keyboard volume. For example you may have your keyboard volume to max while you Natural S6 Piano sound volume is set to 90 out of a possible 127. So you need to go to the volume setting of each voice on the MOXF in your mix and crank that up. You can do that in voice mode from one of the knobs that says volume. Also in master mode that would be a different setting depending if you use zones or not. Check the reference manual. Search for the word “volume” and read all the entries that you will get. It is possible to save volume levels to your liking for all user bank sounds.

Every time I record the internal sounds of the MOXF on my DAW using the MOXF internal audio interface I get very low volumes no matter how much I crank up the volume on the keyboard itself. I have resorted to normalize my recordings in order to get decent levels. The signal from the MOXF is clean and clear since the normalizing is roughly 10 to 14 db and the wave file still remains clear and usable. I wonder if I am doing something wrong or if this is the normal way my MOXF audio interface works (recording at odd low volumes).

Please someone help me. Just to know if this is normal would be great help. Thanks.

Yes, it is normal. When you are outputting audio to a DAW from a SONG MIXING or PATTERN MIXING setup, the PART VOLUMES are simply the equivalent of the Faders on a Mixer. The Faders on a mixer is not the only way to turn up volume in any recording situation..

There are several things that impact your MIDI sequence and its overall output level as audio. One of the first things is that during recording of MIDI typically, as musicians, we pay little or no attention to the audio output levels - it is not a concern at that point. VELOCITY - is how hard or fast you strike the keys. On many of the Voices you are playing this has a profound impact on “how loud” the audio will be when you attempt to record it to your DAW.

When you overdub strings to your MIDI sequence you do so without the audio output level in mind, you play them with the energy of whatever is appropriate for the song. So if the strings are meant to be in the background, you play them with low VELOCITY.

Later you should not be surprised that the output level of this Part on an audio meter says the strings are down in record level - of course, they are, they were played that way.

That is the first issue. MIDI mixing is very different than AUDIO mixing. AUDIO MIXING is all about setting the record level. The recording engineer tries to maximize record level on each channel… but then uses the mixing board to create a musical balance - using the faders to turn down the level of each channel (they are called “faders”, after all to denote reduction in sound levels). You maximize record level so that you can use only what you need.

The solution is to increase the input GAIN of the instrument prior to it coming into the mixer!!! - you do this on the MOXF as follows:

From the SONG/PATTERN mode
Press [MIXING]
Press [F1] VOL/PAN
Here you can see the 16 faders that represent the MOXF mixer.
When you say you did everything - we assume you raised this fader to the top. This is the PART VOLUME.

In a recording studio if you were sitting at the console and there is not enough signal coming in from a particular channel - you would get on the talk back microphone and ask the individual musician to turn the signal up at the SOURCE - feeding more signal (GAIN) into your mixer. That is what we will do now.

From the MIXER
Select a PART (non-Drum Kit) [1]-[16]
Press [F5] VCE ED (VOICE EDIT)

This drops you into full Voice Edit, no need to return to VOICE Mode to edit normal Voices.

Press [COMMON]
Press [F2] OUTPUT
Raise the VOICE VOLUME as required. This will send more signal to your mixer… where you can turn it down with the channel fader.

Press [STORE]
Store this newly edited Voice to the MV (MIXING VOICE) Bank

Each Normal VOICE has a “MV” location within the SONG or PATTERN. This is to house any tweaks you need for this purpose. 16 MIX VOICES can be stored per MIX and a maximum of 256 MIX VOICES can exist at one time in your MOXF.

For more on these music production decisions and Gain Staging/Volume etc. see the SUPPORT area here on Motifator.

This is covered Step-by-step here:
“RECORDING TIPS from Bad_Mister”
Although written for the MOX it applies in full to the MOXF

Thank you wizardgraphics and BadMister for the explanation. I will use your knowledge to optimize my recordings.