High End Tube Gain

[dawnfirst]

I just bought my first high end mic
(Microtech Gefell 92.1s)


And had a question about the gain.
I notice that when I run it through my ltd-1
(or even my projectmix) I have to have the pre
gain RIGHT down, like to -20 or 30 or so to stop it overloading.

I also have the trim on the ltd-1 at about half or so.


My question is, is this normal?
Do I need some kind of 'pad box' or something to lower the
level before the mic pre, so I can run the mic pre harder
and get more 'flavour' out of it?

Sorry if this had been asked before,
maybe my searching skills suck.


Thanks in advance for any advice,

cheers