I need help maximizing my equipment to have better monitoring while I record vocals.
Equipment:
- Presonus 26c
- Shure SM7B (with cloudlifter)
- Studio One Pro V5
Windows 10 PC:
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 8-Core
- 16GB Ram
- GeForce GTX 1060
I have a Presonus 26c interface with direct monitoring, however I am unable to hear my vocals when I direct monitor unless I turn up the interface's volume which also turns up the entire mix. (Not desired) I can see that my vocals are reaching ideal input volume into Studio One, so turning up the gain of the mic isn't the issue. 48v is on and I get great recordings, I just can't hear them.
Because the direct monitoring doesn't work for me, I try to use the software monitoring through Studio One on my vocal track. Of course there is plenty of delay and this isn't ideal either so I play with the device block size settings and dropout protection until my face turns blue with no success.
My main concern though is with the Low Latency recording option Studio One offers. When the Z button is unchecked, I am able to hear loud vocals, but with a delay. However, when I enable Z I am no longer able to hear the vocals unless I add a gain plugin and crank it which in turn is adding volume to my master fader (sometimes clipping it just to hear the vocals through the mix) but the vocals have no latency.
I guess my main question is:
Is there a setting I need to change in order to increase the output volume with Direct Monitoring or Z Monitoring? Why is Z monitoring quieter?
