Well, to find the exact problem you're incurring we need
your entire signal processing going from your microphone to
your soundcard (along with which input). More importantly
are you using a "Mic Pre-Amp"? or going thru a mixing board
which has a "Mic Pre-Amp". Basically when you have
everything setup correctly you should arm a track for
record in Vegas and adjust your Mic Pre-amp until your
input signal is peaking around -6dB on the input meter. If
you're peaking around -6dB, then your amplitude of your
waveforms will be 1/2 the maximum height.

Robert Sweetriver Bellus wrote:
>>I am recording from a number of different mics, into
>>several different programs (including Vegas Audio and
ACID
>>PRO), with and without an external compressor, but in all
>>cases, the resulting wave pattern is very small/narrow,
>>without wide variations up and down (is this amplitude?),
>>and with a much narrower variation, and lower volume than
>>other media I bring in which take up maybe 1/2-2/3 of the
>>width of the track.
>>
>>Is there something obvious I'm doing you can tell from
this
>>description? Or somewhere I could go to research the
>>problem?
>>
>>Thanks in advance for your help and patience on what I'm
>>sure is a very basic question.
>>
>>Bob