Do I need an external mic pre?

L

Loxley

New member
Hey all,

I have a Focusrite 6i6. I'm making an album, which will admittedly be kind of noisy and lo-fi in some way or another. I know this is a purely subjective question, but I need some quick sage advice. Should I bother getting an external mic pre? Is the 6i6 pre good enough to get by? If not, are there any recommendations for a pretty affordable, utilitarian external preamp that I should get?
 
Focusrite's pres are pretty good. There's nothing you'll probably get that will be a noticeable improvement unless you're willing to spend some serious $$$
 
That's pretty much what I expected. I should note that cranking the preamps past 3 o'clock introduces a huge noise floor... probably why I should get a mic pre that introduces some less noise. In theory, it seems that stacking two different pre amps at lower levels would offer better results for getting a lower noise to signal ratio.

I'm almost curious to try the Sansamp Bass Driver Programmable DI.. I know that might be a little unorthodox, but it seems like it could work.
 
Loxley said:
That's pretty much what I expected. I should note that cranking the preamps past 3 o'clock introduces a huge noise floor... probably why I should get a mic pre that introduces some less noise. In theory, it seems that stacking two different pre amps at lower levels would offer better results for getting a lower noise to signal ratio.
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I wouldn't go down that road.
A preamp is designed to output a much hotter signal that in accepts...(duh), so if you feed the output of one preamp into another you're going to overload it.

What are you recording and what mic are you using that noise floor is an issue?
 
Steenamaroo said:
I wouldn't go down that road.
A preamp is designed to output a much hotter signal that in accepts...(duh), so if you feed the output of one preamp into another you're going to overload it.

What are you recording and what mic are you using that noise floor is an issue?
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I'm recording vocals with an SM57. I'll also be recording electric guitar.. which hopefully won't need as much juice. I'm trying to keep my levels peaking around -16 to -10 dB in Pro Tools. In order to do that with vocals at least, I really need to crank the 6i6 past 3 o'clock on the preamp which is where I'm hearing a lot of noise floor being introduced exponentially as I do that.
 
Loxley said:
I'm recording vocals with an SM57. I'll also be recording electric guitar.. which hopefully won't need as much juice. I'm trying to keep my levels peaking around -16 to -10 dB in Pro Tools. In order to do that with vocals at least, I really need to crank the 6i6 past 3 o'clock on the preamp which is where I'm hearing a lot of noise floor being introduced exponentially as I do that.
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Makes sense. A 57 on snare or guitar amp shouldn't be a problem.
Your money might be better spent on a cloud lifter or a condenser mic. You wouldn't need the gain anywhere near as high with an NT1a or something like that.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Makes sense. A 57 on snare or guitar amp shouldn't be a problem.
Your money might be better spent on a cloud lifter or a condenser mic. You wouldn't need the gain anywhere near as high with an NT1a or something like that.
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Good call.. a condenser might just be the thing instead of hooking up a whole different pre! Thank you.
 
Yep, a condenser mic will do it. And when you say the noise floor is raised, is this in the recording or in the monitoring? I notice sometimes that my monitoring headphones sound noisy, but on recording, it's just fine.
 
Loxley said:
Hey all,

I have a Focusrite 6i6. I'm making an album, which will admittedly be kind of noisy and lo-fi in some way or another. I know this is a purely subjective question, but I need some quick sage advice. Should I bother getting an external mic pre? Is the 6i6 pre good enough to get by? If not, are there any recommendations for a pretty affordable, utilitarian external preamp that I should get?
Click to expand...

Nah... you would need to spend more than $1000 to start hearing a difference.

The budget below ~1000 is mostly used for the quantity of the inputs/outputs.
The pres are almost the same.

An audio interface with lots of inputs/outputs with a noticeable difference in sound - ranging at ~1000 - is the RME FF800.
As mentioned, it costs around $1000 but you may find some great bargains out there.
 
Great, that makes sense.

While I'm at it, does anyone have any recommendations for a large diaphragm condenser? Again, just need something pretty utilitarian, I'm not looking to make a hi-fi, glassy clean recording.
 
Steenamaroo said:
NT1a is decent enough. A used mk219/319 might be a bit cheaper and more natural sounding.
I have both and they both get use.
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I used to own the Oktava MK219 and have used a friends Rode NT1a & NT2 often... I'd hold up the SE2200 MkII as a better mic than all 3 in a heartbeat.
 
Better is subjective but, if you don't know already, give the mk219/319 their fair attention.
They're aren't as artificially bright sounding as many other mics so the gut reaction can sometimes be to think it's not as nice.

Quite often I find it to be much more natural than some of my other mics.

I don't know the 2200 though, so I can't say you're wrong. Just pointing it out. :)
 
The 219 is definitely 'darker' sounding than the NT1a.
The NT1a has a 'sharp' sounding high end.
The NT2 sounds 'better' than both.
The SE2200a IMO has a sparkle that is more pleasing than the NT2 and in my experience requires a lot less EQ.
 
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