Preamps.

[Warwick]

As some of you might have seen, I am quite new to the process of recording.I have heard about them a lot before, and I have a question about preamps... What exactly are they, and what do they do? Ive also heard about "tube preamps" in guitar and bass amplifiers, could somebody explain this to me? Thanks a lot!

[c7sus]

The output of most microphones is too small for your recording media to do anything useful with, so preamps amplify the mics signal to LINE LEVEL.

A tube preamp uses a tube rather than an IC or opamp to perform the amplifying function.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Warwick:

If you get a copy of TAPE OP, a free pub, you will find many ads and evaluations of mic pres--some expensive, some not so expensive.

BTW, Grace Design has dropped prices and it is a pretty good mic pre. I have the 101 and it's a winner.

Green Hornet

[Audiorain]

What I've come to understand is that basically a preamp boosts the signal before the power amp pushes the sound out of the speaker.

Basically it is what happens 'pre-amplification' - before amplification. It adds power to the signal.

I'm still a bit confused though. Somewhere along the line I read somewhere that a preamp is, for example, on a guitar amplifier, what all the buttons and controls alter. Is that right? Like, the equalisation and gain controls are altering the preamp settings. Someone please explain it in simple terms?

[Cloneboy Studio]

Preamp stage is also where the largest amplification typically occurs, so the fidelity of the preamp has a huge say in the output sound. That's why preamps are so important. Since they can alter the character of sound so radically they are often hotly debated about which ones are better or more appropriate for a given source.

[sile2001]

Originally Posted by Audiorain

What I've come to understand is that basically a preamp boosts the signal before the power amp pushes the sound out of the speaker.

Basically it is what happens 'pre-amplification' - before amplification. It adds power to the signal.

I'm still a bit confused though. Somewhere along the line I read somewhere that a preamp is, for example, on a guitar amplifier, what all the buttons and controls alter. Is that right? Like, the equalisation and gain controls are altering the preamp settings. Someone please explain it in simple terms?

Gain controls do alter the preamp. In short, the gain control adjusts how much the preamp amplifies the signal.

EQ's can be included with preamps, but are not actually a part of it. For instance, in a guitar amp the EQ section normally works on the signal after it leaves the preamp, not while it is still in the preamp.

That help you out any?