Would a preamp make much difference on vocal recordings? How?

[cadbawdbawks]

Hi all,

I was wondering if a preamp would make much difference on vocal tracks. I was thinking specifically of the ART TubeMP Studio V3 preamp. If indeed it does, how will this improve the sound quality? Any help is much appreciated!


Thanks for taking your time to read this!

[Jim Lad]

You were concerned about sounding muffled.
A tube amp would only make that worse really.

[cadbawdbawks]

Originally Posted by Jim Lad

You were concerned about sounding muffled.
A tube amp would only make that worse really.

I've realized though that when i record my vocals, my interface has a tendency to clip all the time unless I record at such a level that i can barely hear myself in my headphones. Would a preamp solve this?

With regards to the muffling, is this the purpose of tube amps?

Thanks

[gecko zzed]

No . . . a preamp is not going to help you at this stage.

If you are clipping your signal, yet unable to hear yourself, the problem lies in the monitoring path, not the recording path.

You should be able to get a very good sound recorded without a dedicated pre. Until you get this, there is nothing to gain by the addition of a pre.

[cadbawdbawks]

Originally Posted by gecko zzed

No . . . a preamp is not going to help you at this stage.

If you are clipping your signal, yet unable to hear yourself, the problem lies in the monitoring path, not the recording path.

You should be able to get a very good sound recorded without a dedicated pre. Until you get this, there is nothing to gain by the addition of a pre.

Would there be a solution for the issue with my monitoring path then?

Thanks for the reply

[Dani Pace]

Turn up your playback/monitor volume. You should never clip the input signal.

[villainrecordin]

iv never had that problem but you could try using a limiter, i typically hate limiters for vocals but if it helps it helps.

[Massive Master]

Not at the input ---

If you're even *approaching* clipping, you're very likely overdriving your input chain. You're waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too hot.

Brushing up on basic gain-staging would be the place to start.

[cadbawdbawks]

Originally Posted by Dani Pace

Turn up your playback/monitor volume. You should never clip the input signal.

My monitor volume is already at max, is there any other solution? Thanks

[Jim Lad]

Depends on your equipment.
Sometimes the headphone volume control is tied to the monitor volume control.
So even if your headphone is turned up all the way, you won't hear anything until you turn the monitor up.
Other equipment has a "Share" set up whereby you choose 0-100% playback versus input.
In other words, you control how much of yourself you get to hear while playing back the prerecorded tracks.
What equipment are you using?

[jimmy77611]

What interface are you using?

[darrin_h2000]

Originally Posted by cadbawdbawks

With regards to the muffling, is this the purpose of tube amps?

Thanks

Not all preamps are going to be an improvement...cheap ones will degrade the signal...ART makes alot of those...nobody makes a tube pre that is useable without bumping up the voltage enough to actually use the tube...and you wont get that with a preamp that uses an AC/DC adapter.

[cadbawdbawks]

Originally Posted by Jim Lad

Depends on your equipment.
Sometimes the headphone volume control is tied to the monitor volume control.
So even if your headphone is turned up all the way, you won't hear anything until you turn the monitor up.
Other equipment has a "Share" set up whereby you choose 0-100% playback versus input.
In other words, you control how much of yourself you get to hear while playing back the prerecorded tracks.
What equipment are you using?

I'm currently using a Tascam US122 Interface and an mxl 990 mic.

The interface does indeed have the phones and direct monitor volume controls. I've actually already turned up both to the max and still I can't hear much if I record at a level that does not clip. Thanks for the tip though

[Vinnydude]

Just a thought, but maybe try turning everything else down a bit?!

[gecko zzed]

Originally Posted by cadbawdbawks

The interface does indeed have the phones and direct monitor volume controls. I've actually already turned up both to the max and still I can't hear much if I record at a level that does not clip.

Just a thought. Is it possible that you need to turn the direct monitor control the other way? Sometimes these controls act like a pan between input (what you are trying to record) and output (what you have already recorded).

[Rust E-Z]

Your not singing into the back of your mic, are you?

[Jim Lad]

Have you enabled "Direct Monitor"?
4 – Hooking up Audio and MIDI to the US-122 TASCAM US-122 — 17 Using Direct Monitoring In digital and computer audio, the amount of time it takes for the input sig- nal to pass through the circuitry of the unit and the software processing and arrive at the outputs will sometimes result in an audible delay (this is com- monly referred to as “audio latency”). This added delay can be confusing when, for example, you’re trying to overdub to previously recorded tracks. The direct monitor feature built into the US-122 eliminates this problem by pro- viding a way to listen to the signals you’re recording directly, without any computer processing delay. When the DIRECT switch is on, the sound passed through the USB and computer process- ing is not monitored, and the input sig- nals are passed directly to the outputs for monitoring. You can use the DIRECT MONITOR level control to set the level of the directly monitored signal, and the MONO switch to fold the two direct monitor stereo channels into mono. The LINE OUT and PHONES level con- trols directly affect the audio levels that appear on the LINE OUTPUT and PHONES jacks, respectively.