-30db is a pretty good signal, your DAW should have a nice wave.
What is your DAW ? Mac or PC ?

sorry I was away for a few days.  I got that backwords. I have -30 tops of gain. I'm supposed to be at -18 or somewhere close. I'm using Reaper on a custom-built pc. everything is constantly updated on a regular basis. and I am serious, I have tried all the advice and nothing works. I'm stuck at -30 dB. -3o is nothing on the meter. basically less than half of what I should have. I have no visible wave until I normalize and like I stated before, I get more noise.

Hello!

Which BabyFace is it?
Also, can you post the driver and firmware versions?(numbers, please)

A screenshot of your Totalmix would be helpful. There is something wrong. I have an old Babyface silver and a new Madiface Pro and I have plenty of signal when a guitar is plugged in directly into the interface.
Have you clicked the button "-10 dBV" ? Please try.
May be you have clicked the wrong button ( +4dBu ) ?

so ive already done this and i did it again to make sure but nothing has changed. i am seriously stumped!

And it will stay like that unless we get more clear information. Before clarifying what might be wrong with Reaper's settings you need to look at the hardware - the Babyface - only and give us required, clear and correct information. That is:

- Open TotalMix FX. Open the channel settings of input 3/4. Set the reference level to -10 dBV, Gain to 0.0. Now tell us what level you see in the level meter of input 3/4 when you strum the guitar. The levels are the numbers on top, below the M and S button.

A screenshot of this action might help as well.

I have a screenshot but how to attach it to a message in this forum is beyond me, I click on the photo icon at the top and all I get is text- but the levels are fluctuating between -41 to - 39.5 with settings as instructed. I have also tried various combinations of settings with very little change.

some other information that may or may not be of interest
I am using active pickups
I have other audio drivers installed for other devices but this is disabled before sessions. and I still have this issue on other pcs and laptops with nothing installed but windows.
rme is the default device in windows settings
I am also not exactly sure if I should be using a different TRS cable, I do not have any stereo cables. not sure if that makes a diffrence.

you'll have to excuse my lack of experience it must be frustrating for you to deal with amateurs.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kfocg4sdscf6j … n.jpg?dl=0

this was really confusing and i don't even want to have a drop box account so if this doesn't work then i will  have to email you photos

ok, your not understanding. even with the gain at the highest possible levels, I'm getting the same -41 to -30. I have literally tried all the settings p[ossible. would you like screenshots of all those settings? could you post a screenshot of what you think it should look like?

You did ask about the cable.
i assume you have a guitar amp and there the sound is normal and you plug the same cable into the interface, correct ?

If you have other cables, try a TS - XLR cable and connect the guitar to the Mic input of the interface with no gain.
And did you try input 4 as well ?

my apologies again, I thought my initial post had clarified I had tried everything I could think of with no results. yes, even a new cable gets the exact same result. and I only use mogomie. but of course, those can be defective out of the box thats why I tried 3 other cables with the same results.  I do not own a guitar amp either everything goes through the babyface and into my pc and out through a pair of adam a7x monitors or headphones.

are there any other possible reasons I would have such a low line level?

so, if the babyface is defective that would make it defective from the factory. if this is the case then that would make this a customer service issue which many others have this exact problem so now what? I'm not so certain any warranty will cover it as I've owned it for some time, but have just started to use it this last few months, putting a modest studio together takes time. and I'm sure the repair would warrant a new purchase. is there someone in the U.S., Washington part of the pacific northwest you could recommend that could possibly look at it and test it. I'm sure based on all the responses I've gotten I'm doing something completely idiotic and can't figure it out.

Ouch !
The analog input 3 AND 4 have the same issue, no gain stage working ?!
Have you tried the flash update tool ?
Just in case the previous flash did not complete load.
I would give it a try :
https://rme-audio.de/downloads/fut_usb_win.zip

this is becoming redundant. I have done all these quite a few times