Need preamp/interface for SM7b

joms said:
Hi Dave,

Thanks so much for the post but I got lost at "KA6 gives 0dBFS ...... etc" LOL. Sorry for being such a noob.

By the way, I am also buying a bnew computer. Does the KA6 need special specs like it only responds good with xxx chipset and such? (Ive read that firewire cards are picky. I hope this being USB wont be that picky).

Ive also been reading around and some suggests the ff:

Focusrite scarlett
Roland Quadcapture
maudio profire 610

Are these any good? How do they stack up against the KA6? I should only be concerned with the AD conversion of the interface right? since the preamp would be done solely by the ISA one.

Thanks again Dave. Im not having luck and it is sure nice to get some help from you.

PS - ISA One has only 1 output but I should connect it to KA6's channel 3 and 4? (2 inputs)? How do I do this?
Click to expand...

I really wouldn't handwring about converter quality. There are only a very few A/D, D/A converter chip types on the market. Much more important is the drivers written for that hardware and NI's is of the best (whispered that RME had a hand!) Certainly it beats the pants of almost all other usb AIs for latency and quite a few Fussywire ones!

Sorry you were "tekked out"! Bottom line is thet the ISA will produce a pretty hot signal, potentially pushing the NI (and almost any other "non-pro" AI) into distortion but I would not worry about it.

Dave.
 
Ok im trying to understand your posts LOL.

Please correct me if im wrong. So the point of using input 3 as against input 1 or 2 is because we want to avoid the preamp and pads of the KA6 right? So Input 3 or 4 is the cleanest and the best choice if im just going to use the A/D converter of KA6.

From my reading though, I think KA6 doesnt have a knob to lower/increase the volume of channels 3 and 4. Would this be a problem since you said that ISA one produces a pretty hot signal? (I won't be able to lower the volume on channel 3 if I use that as input of my ISA One)

I'm almost 90% ready to buy so I'd just be waiting for your reply then perhaps buy in a couple of hours. I'm getting the Shure SM7b / Focusrite ISA One / KA6

One more thing, I need an XLR female mono and a TRS Male stereo on the other end? Why stereo while the other end is mono?
 
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I will only be using input "3" of KA6 for the ISA One ... right?

So that means I can still use input "4" for a CD player or ipod right? (it is stereo like you said?)
 
May I ask something off topic.

Do i also need a compressor and reverb hardware? Or do I do that in the software after recording my voice?

(reverb effect is the echo when doing karaoke right?)
 
arcaxis said:
Do I read this as you don't have the SM7b yet? If not, I going to make a suggestion..... rather than dive in for all that gear all at once ($$$), just get the KA6 interface to start with and use your SM58 for a while to get your feet wet in the recording process. Both the SM7b and ISA are good pieces of gear, but you may find they don't work well with your voice or some other reason. It may be worth starting out on a lower budget mic and direct in to the KA6 to get a feel of what does work well for you. I know you've been over at another site asking questions and there's been a lot about the SM7b (one guy in particular has been praising it and he's also been suspended from the forum twice. Booted here too I think). I've had the SM7b about a week and even with the ISA and with my voice I'm still not sure it works for me and I sort figured out last night that different from other mics I've got, I have to be right up on the windscreen to get a closer sound to what I'm used to.

Just my 2 cents.......
Click to expand...

That, ^ is certainly worth thinking about Joms. Apart from any other consideration the re sale value of high end kit is quite poor whereas you would likely get 75% of the new price of the Ka6 (I see M-A fast track pros selling at 80quid) ...IF however you are going to get all three items from the same supplier, do talk some hard turkey about cables! Dealers (and peeps like I !) have shedloads of cables cluttering up the place, in anycase, don't ask, never know!

The output level "problem". Isn't one, pretty sure. For one thing although the One does not have an output control it does have very fine gain control, so thast just leave the metering. I have downloaded and boned up a bit on the manual. The pre comes set with +4dBu as default for 0vu and since the KA6 can cope with +12dBu no worries. Even if the metering was not to your liking it can be eaily re-calibrated so that 0 vu reads for any reasonable output voltage. All that said and going back to the quote, the pre IS a pretty tekky bit of kit, you will have a bit of a learning curve! (btw, did not know. You can reto fit a converter with ADAT! Nice!).

Re the single output: This is where, with the greatest respect, the noobs get scuppered. Without I hope coming across as a smart A, this is a trivial matter to me, I would just knock up a splitter box. See, noobs are doing fine so long as they are plugging standard bits together but once out of their comfort zone...Bump!

But do not worry! You can read and write, drive a car(?) work a computer (better than me I bet!) hold down a job...Fork you probably support a family and even have a second language? I don't (well, did the former, don't have the latter) so the amount of technical stuff you really need is quite minimal and certainly within your grasp.

Dave.
 
arcaxis said:
Dave, You may have lost me on the splitter box. Are you saying take the single output of the ISA and split it to two so it can feed for instance both ch 3 and 4 on the KA6? If this is the case why would I want to do that? I'm presently using a hardware recorder (Tascam 2488) and using only one channel of input and pan the vocal center. I can't think of a reason why I might want to use two channels and maybe print to two tracks.
Click to expand...

No, not two tracks but a double mono "stereo" track. You have pan controls on the Tascam, as I have on my ZED 10, so you and I can take a single source and have it left, right, centre or any place in between. AIs typically do not have pan controls except more expensive types in software. (and I use Samplitude mostly anyway so I would only need to click "Mono Mix".)

My point being that Joms might want a vocal track "phantom" centred.

Dave.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Anyway, I intend to buy all of the gear at once since I live in the Philippines. It takes around 2 months+ for the gear to arrive to me as I have them shipped via sea. Shipping cost will also be much cheaper if I buy that all at once since I will have to pay only once. Don't worry, I have luckily tested the SM7b here in the Philippines from someone who has been selling it. Ive tested it out and it fits my voice very fine indeed.

Prices here are very expensive. Some used gear here are even more expensive than bnew gear from the US so selling these won't be that much of a problem. (incase I do intend to sell) For instance, ISA One bnew here cost US$1000. SM7b bnew cost US$530 (and the SM7b doesn't even come with warranty despite it being sold by the exlusive distributor of shure) =P

So I guess it's time to buy unless anyone here has something to say against the KA6 ? You have like 3 more hours to convince me otherwise LOL
 
[]Hi Dave, I futiley tried to set up an SM7b for my own SOHO studio and tried a few a USB preamps. The most notable being the Roland Quad Capture. Good reviews, pretty design, but very serios cons.
1. Not enough gain. At max, the level was barely OK and the noise was very high.
2. Headphone gain was very low. Too low to use with any ambient noise.
3. Headphone amp was noisy.
So, with all that dosrraction, it was hard to determine the worst offending aspect.

But I liked the physical design and thought I'd I try the CloudLifter Z which boasts tons of clean gain along with impedance balancing. Well the balancing didn't do much but it dud raise the gain sugnificantly but not tremendously.

After all that, I still had some noise but had almist dezcended to smbirnt noise. But for all the extra invesyment, I frlt it wasn't worth it. I need a nouse level I cannot hear for my few dollars I have to spare.

So, passed on everything, sent it all back, and am now waiting for the next hot, high gain, super liw noise, USB 3 I/F.

================
joms said:
Thanks so much for the post but I got lost at "KA6 gives 0dBFS ...... etc" LOL. Sorry for being such a noob.

By the way, I am also buying a bnew computer. Does the KA6 need special specs like it only responds good with xxx chipset and such? (Ive read that firewire cards are picky. I hope this being USB wont be that picky).

Ive also been reading around and some suggests the ff:

Focusrite scarlett
Roland Quadcapture
maudio profire 610

Are these any good? How do they stack up against the KA6? I should only be concerned with the AD conversion of the interface right? since the preamp would be done solely by the ISA one.

Thanks again Dave. Im not having luck and it is sure nice to get some help from you.

PS - ISA One has only 1 output but I should connect it to KA6's channel 3 and 4? (2 inputs)? How do I do this?
Click to expand...
 
TKA, I think you have fallen into the "noob level trap" .

This means that you waffle into a microphone and expect a serious level on the DAW meters, around -10 or -6 and with the ability to blow things into the red very easily. This is not how it works.

The two best AIs I have tried so far, the KA6 and a Scarlet 8i6 need the mic gain at max to get speech at inches from an SM57 to deliver -20dBFS. My Allen and Heath mixer is better but not by very much. This is NORMAL! The SM7b is NOTED for low output so neg 25 even -30 is a likely result. Both the AI pre amps mentioned gave a noise floor of a very acceptable -70dB or so, again the ZED10 was better but again, not by much.

Headphone levels are almost universally low on AIs. Part of this is "nannification" I am certain but then IF the cans output was high for a neg 20 signal, TOOOB stuff would blow your head off!

The results with the Cloud Lifter are odd and surprising but I have nit tried one so cannot comment further.

Bottom line? I think you are expecting tape recorder levels and digital does not work that way.

Dave.
 
It's the numbers you see.... In the days of tape, a passing decent mic pre amp was easily 20dB quieter than even the best tape machine.

Now even the very best mic amps are 20dB WORSE than a passing good AI.

Dave.
 
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