Hey guys,
This has been bugging me for a few weeks now, but I did not have enough facts to share until recently. It was in the topic below where Mr. Bad Mister stated that MOXF Line output should be considered +4dBu and that was kinda confusing for me:
https://yamahasynth.com/forum/moxf-output-level-and-jbl-lsr305
My general understanding is that unbalanced (TS) Line level connections are -10dBV and balanced (TRS) Line level connections are +4dBu. MOXF provides unbalanced connections only, so it should be -10...
It was only recently that I got my new Steinberg UR44 interface (yeah, I am Yamaha-Steinberg fanboy, don't mind me) that has switchable (-10/+4) Line inputs I could try and check what will be the correct setting.
By default UR44 comes with Line In set for -10dBV and MOXF was sounding OK. Monitoring in Cubase, MOXF with the output slider all the way up was coming a bit hot and very hard hitting performances (these that hit 3 yellow lights on MOXF meter) were occasionally hitting 0dB in Cubase. Setting the MOXF output slider two bars down fixed that and the input in Cubase was not going past -6dB, which I consider healthy (for a hard hitting mix).
Switching the UR44 inputs to +4dBu (UR44 expecting a stronger signal) resulted in very low levels in Cubase, not going past -20dB with MOXF slider all the way up on very hard hitting performances.
So, in my experience, while MOXF Line outputs may come a bit hot for -10dBV occasionally, it is definitely not a +4dBu signal that's going out of it.
Any comments about your experience are welcome.
Your low levels are likely due to conservative volume settings of the Voice. Learn how to get significantly better record levels from your MOXF here