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I've been using an XLR Condenser Audio Technica AT2035 for the past year to record demos with an acoustic guitar through a focusrite scarlett solo on garageband and until 4 days ago it sounded great but randomly it started to sound extremely quiet and muffled and I've no idea why I've scoured other forums and I can ensure you I am recording through the front and I doubt it's a software issue im unsure if it's simply just the xlr cable or the microphone or interface and I don't have a spare microphone or interface to test it

working mic

muffled mic

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  • (ignore the accidental terribly synced metronome on the muffled example that was just an accident)
    – Bradley Ryan
    Commented Jul 19 at 21:35
  • Doesn’t sound like the mic is bad to me, sounds like something more mundane is happening. Are you 100% sure the mic is facing the right way? Have you removed all plugins from the channel that the bad sound is on?
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Jul 20 at 2:38
  • Yeah I started a new garageband project for the muffled example and just cut out a snippet from an other demo fr the working one, i'm recording straight into the front with the same settings as before it sounds alot more jarring when trying to record the last verse of a project I was working on, it sounds alot less natural and like boxed to me, I have no idea
    – Bradley Ryan
    Commented Jul 20 at 9:24

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There definitely is something wrong with the "muffled mic" recording. Exact reason can be a bit difficult to diagnose remotely. I will only post some guesses here. Ideally you would test one component at a time to diagnose the problem. If possible, try with another mic to see if it is the cable, the soundcard or the software that is the problem.

Possible problem areas:

  • Recording into the back of the microphone (turned 180 degrees) : turn mic 180 degrees
  • Switch on microphone in some middle position : toggle switch a few times
  • Broken cable or contacts : plug/unplug a few times, use a different cable
  • Broken sound interface : try a different interface
  • Some unspecified problem with settings in recording software : check settings maybe you are recording through the computers internal mic (I have done that mistake).

The mic can have gone wrong of course. High humidity sometimes can make bad things happen to condenser microphones (as the AT is) but this should give different symptoms such as a popping sound.

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