Well, it's different for every person in relation to their system, sound-capture device(s), and the type of microphone. However in my case my sound-card is somehow faulty and even with the recording volume at its maximum with +20 dB boost enabled it's more silent than a whisper. Talking with SoundBlaster about the matter just resulted in a run-around. Just when you thought you were getting somewhere you were dropped to block 1: Figuring out what's wrong.