Hey this is my first post and at the same time the same problem that has hunted me for years:

When I record with my mic the first thing I usually see is a line, the first thing I hear during playback...well nothing. This has made recording with my equipment impossible for the past year.

Luckily I got my hands on Cubase last week and was able to amp the recordings by about 15 dbs without loss of quality(or so I think after a whole year thereof). Also I can hear myself fine if I plug my headphones into the audiointerface and for example rub my fingers together next to the mic.

Now on the mixer when I record it doesn't matter if I reach the yellow line or even the red line of to much noise,which means even if I scream into the mic with gain and levels turned to max it's always the same result. I also don't have -10db on my mic turned on so it records exactly as it is.

I have replaced my old US 122L audiointerface with the 144MKII (Tascam). So the problem must lie between the mixer and the mic.

PS: the equipment is solemnly used to record vocals.