Alright what’s up everybody — in this video I’m showing you a vocal chain that’s so simple it honestly feels illegal. I literally go from “get ready for the audio to improve in 3, 2, 1” to a clean, pro-sounding recording using two pieces of budget gear: the Audio-Technica AT2020 and the Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen. No external preamp, no analog chain, no crazy plugins doing the heavy lifting — just a tried-and-true mic, a surprisingly strong interface, and proper gain staging. The big takeaway is how I’m setting my input level. I’m using the Waves WLM meter and I’m aiming for about -25 to -23 LUFS short-term while I raise the gain on the interface. Once I hit that target, I stop touching the input and leave it alone so I can get the cleanest, most noise-free recording possible. I’ve used a lot of interfaces over the years (ID14 Mk I, SSL2, even Apollos), and the Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen genuinely hangs with them for what I’m doing here. If you want clean audio on a budget, this combo plus correct gain staging is the whole sauce.