Why did you go straight for a very unusual mic? It's actually a very good dynamic, but with an internal preamp, which makes it kind of 'special'.

You need to go back to basics. This mic, when fed with phantom power engages the internal preamp, no phantom means it works passively like other dynamics. The interface (not a sound card) is fine too - so what should happen is you plug the mic into the Scarlett, turn the gain up - perhaps start around half way, leave phantom off, and then in your DAW you select the channel you plugged the mic into ands you should see movement on the meter, and if you plug in headphones into the interface, hear the mic. If you turn on phantom, you will probably need to turn down the gain on the Scarlett. You should hear the mic, noise free. If you are hearing loads of noise then you've probably got some setting wrong on the Scarlett software - maybe you are recording the other empty mic socket, or the line input? You will need to give us some precise and detailed explanations about what you're doing. Maybe start with plugging the mic into the Scarlett and seeing if you can hear it through the headphones socket, noise free. Then move to the computer side of things.

paulears, post: 468252, member: 47782 wrote:
Why did you go straight for a very unusual mic? It's actually a very good dynamic, but with an internal preamp, which makes it kind of 'special'.

You need to go back to basics. This mic, when fed with phantom power engages the internal preamp, no phantom means it works passively like other dynamics. The interface (not a sound card) is fine too - so what should happen is you plug the mic into the Scarlett, turn the gain up - perhaps start around half way, leave phantom off, and then in your DAW you select the channel you plugged the mic into ands you should see movement on the meter, and if you plug in headphones into the interface, hear the mic. If you turn on phantom, you will probably need to turn down the gain on the Scarlett. You should hear the mic, noise free. If you are hearing loads of noise then you've probably got some setting wrong on the Scarlett software - maybe you are recording the other empty mic socket, or the line input? You will need to give us some precise and detailed explanations about what you're doing. Maybe start with plugging the mic into the Scarlett and seeing if you can hear it through the headphones socket, noise free. Then move to the computer side of things.

First of all, thank you for answering. When it comes to the choice of mic, I was recommended it from a friend who is a very good recording/mixing engineer and vocal producer. Unfortunately, we are no longer friends and he turned out to be a shit(still very good at his job). So now I’m left with this mic and no experience or knowledge. But I will try following the steps you wrote, and come back with more info/questions. Thank you!

Can you tell us exactly what sort of cable you are using between the audio interface and the microphone?

You could well get this type of problem if you were inadvertently using a cable that had an XLR(F) connector at the microphone end but a TRS jack rather than an XLR(M) plug at the interface end. That combination would result in the microphone signal being connected to the attenuated instrument input of the Scarlett's pre-amp. Switching on the phantom power at the interface in order to activate the microphone's internal 50dB(!) gain pre-amplifier would make no difference, as phantom power is only supplied to the XLR contacts on a combi input connector and not the TRS jack contacts.

That said, I don't understand why the Scarlett is producing white noise even when the input level controls are at 0 (fully anti-clockwise). Have you got a pair of headphones that you can plug into the audio output of the Scarlett 2i2? If so, please tell us what you hear in them when you have Direct Monitor set to mono (the circle symbol) and the headphone level turned up, and then you talk into the microphone at various settings of the input gain control.

Hi! Thank you for answering. I am using the cheapest xlr-f to xlr-m cable(5$). When I plug in my headphones and turn on Direct monitoring set to mono with headphone levels turned up I can hear a little bit of “hizz”. I followed some tutorials on YouTube on how to properly connect/setup and record. And still I can have my mic input gain on 0, press record and my audio track is just white noise. Crunchy, fat white noise.

Another question. When I turn my mic input level on my scarlet at 0. Am I still supposed to be able to hear myself through the mic? An example: I turn down the input gain to 0 both on my scarlet and in my DAW and I can still hear myself through the mic.

Juniorparis, post: 468256, member: 52552 wrote:
When I turn my mic input level on my scarlet at 0. Am I still supposed to be able to hear myself through the mic? An example: I turn down the input gain to 0 both on my scarlet and in my DAW and I can still hear myself through the mic.

That depends on the level of signal that the microphone is producing, as 0 indicates the lowest level and does not mean silence. The specification of the 2i2 implies that the microphone input has a maximum input of +9dBu when the gain is set to 0, and -47dBu when the gain is set to maximum. If the phantom power really is activating the internal pre-amplifier, then you would easily hear sounds from the microphone when wearing headphones and the gain control turned to 0.

I think we need to hear the white noise that you complain of. Could you post a clip (e.g. 10 seconds) of this noise with no microphone connected? Set the gain about half way up so that your noise level is obvious.

Actually, what would really help is if we could see it too? Any chance you could do a little phone video and put it on YouTube showing the settings, the connections, what happens when you turn knobs, prod buttons etc? Something seems very wrong here - not the usual sort of problem - loud white noise is not normal, even setting gains wrong.