Presonus M80 level into Yamaha mixer

[timsutton]

hi all,

I have a Presonus M80 running into a O1V96 Yamaha mixer, and I'm just wondering if I should be setting levels differently than I am. Usually when I've connected this device to a MOTU interface, I can get close to the full range at +18dBu from the M80 before it clips at the interface. However, with the Yamaha mixer, I'm clipping at around the 0 mark (the meter starts at -30dBu).

I'm running to the Yamaha with an XLR -> TRS snake, the TRS into the mixer's balanced inputs.

The gains on the mics seem about where they should be. There's no +4/-10 switch for the TRS connectors on the mixer, instead the trim pot for the mic doubles as a gain knob for the 1/4" input, with +4 and -10 marked on the dial. I have the gain set to the lowest, which is +4.

Does this seem strange, or is this what I should be expecting? The only thing I could try would be to substitute the XLR with a TRS snake and try from either the same outs or to use the sends instead. I saw a thread here where someone complained about different levels from the two, but this shouldn't really be the case.

The other question is, if this is fine, then should I use a -20 pad on the mixer so as to be able to use a greater dynamic range within the preamp, and just attenuate at the input? Right now I'm not using the pad, just making sure the pre signal doesn't go above 0.


thanks much!