Do I need a Pre amp?

[blaminack]

Greets! This is my first post here and I am over whelmed by the amount of activty... first my set up...

I am recording using Ableton Live 4, Reason, FLS 6, and M-Powered Protools. I have a M-Audio Firewire 410, and a Beringher Mixer. I have a few Mics, two Dynamic and two Condensors. My mixer and soundcard both have built in pre amps, but my knowledge of using outboard gear is really new to me. I am just recently begining to record vocals, guitar and sax. I have had some nice results, but I am unhappy with my signal to noise ratio... It seems to me that if I have things set right then my signal should be very strong and the noise very low, but it seems as if I have not found that happy setting. With the fact that I am using two differant pre amps already do I really need a hardware Pre Amp to boost the signal or should my current set up configured correctly cover the issue?

Here is a link to a song that I have had the kind of results that I am not quite happy with as far as the noise goes...

http://www.versionist.com/musicitem/10299

I would like to improve this as far as noise goes...

Thanks for any helpful responses...

Blessins!

[killmachine]

you don't have to have an external pre amp. Some preamps are better than others. If your getting good results don't worry about it.

[Herm]

If you mean you are using the behringer mixer into your m audio preamp then your are just asking for noise. If you have a preamp in the m audio card that is all you need for your mic. There is no good reason to plug your mic into the behringer mixer and then run it into your m audio.

[blaminack]

I had been doing that merely as a convience of keeping the out put from my Bass, Line 6 output from my guitar and Mic hooked up and at hand...