Preamp'ing twice?

WhiteStrat

Don't stare at the eye.
My interface is a TASCAM 1804, with it's own preamps. So if I use a different preamp, and then go into the TASCAM, I'm "preamping" the signal twice, right?

Is that just an inherent evil to the digital approach, or is there a better way that I'm missing?

And if doing it that way is par for the course, I'm wondering what the drawbacks are and how others deal with them.

Thanks!
 
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When running from one preamp to another (which does happen quite often) you have to be careful about your gain structure to make sure you don't introduce a lot of noise or overdrive the input of the last input in your chain.

On some mixers and portable recorders you can bypass the preamp ( and bypass the color or noise therewith) by using a insert point.
But mainly you just have to watch your levels close.
 
Thanks for the input. You're right about watching the input--that's something I've learned to do with this setup!

So if the preamp on the TASCAM is fairly neutral, and the external preamp is a tube preamp, should I keep the TASCAM levels low and let the tube preamp do the heavy lifting--thus giving me more of the tube color (assuming that's what I want!).

And right after I posted this, it occured to me that the TASCAM also has 4 TRS line level inputs. So I might avoid the double preamping situation by going from the tube preamp into one of the 4 line level inputs instead of one of the 4 mic inputs.
 
That is what I would do, go into the line level input.
A mic preamp basically gets the mic signal up to line level (at the same level as a synth or whatever). So just keep the input gain at the most optimum level for the least amount of noise.

The reason I bring up the inserts is this.
Even your line ins have a preamp if there is a gain knob. If there is an effects loop or insert it will drop the incoming signal in after the preamp stage.
 
Y' know, I've never used them, but I think the TASCAM does have inserts. By using the external tube preamp, and then the TASCAM's insert--I'm bypassing the TASCAM's preamp, and just using it purely to move the sound into my software, right?

In the end, it may or may not sound any better--I just want to eliminate the TASCAM pre's for the sake of really hearing what other pre's are doing to my sound. I'm gearing up to spend some $$ on some new pre's and it didn't seem to make sense if I'm just dumbing them down (or mixing them) with the TASCAM pres.

Thanks again!
 
Yeah,
Makes sense to me!
When using the insert to drop your signal in you need to find out how the insert jack is wired.
Some work a little different.
Some , you just plug right in with a regular 1/4 inch cable.

Good luck!
 
I once hand made a bunch of custom 1/4" cables to siphon the signal out of my mixers insert to create a submix for recording a live gig. I'll bet those will work for this it the straight 1/4" don't do the trick.
 
i've got the 1884 here... i would use the line ins if i were you... they are balanced and avoid the first two stages of the preamp ( a transistor pair and 1/2 of an opamp)...
 
dementedchord:

Thanks for the tip--but by line ins, do you mean the inserts on the mic channels (1-4), or do you mean the line level channels (5-8).

BTW--what st. lou burb are you in? I'm in St. Louis as well.
 
That's funny--I say St. Louis too. But I'm also in Illinois. About 7 miles outside of Waterloo in the middle of nowhere. Lived in the St. Louis (about 10 minutes from downtown) for all my life, then moved out to the woods about 3 years ago. We love it out here.
 
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