Gain Controls x 3

F

fuquam

New member
My basic set up (without all the processors) is a MOTU 828 firewire, an Alesis studio mixer, and an ART 2 channel rack mount tube preamp. The problem is they all have gain knobs (and phantom power). I noticed while recording vocals last night that the meter on the tube pre was barley moving so I turned down the gain on the mixer and the MOTU in order to turn up the gain on the tube pre. So this seems like a messed up signal chain but everything has to go through the mixer and the MOTU is the A/D convertor so there isn't another way. Any advice and especially on which gain control, if any, is more important than the other?
Thanks.
 
uhhmmmm.....

Why "must" that external pre have to go through that mixer (monitoring)? And doesn't that 828 have any line ins?
the best way to use an external pre is to just plug it's line out directly into the AD converter. That way you have the cleanest signal path. Why don't you use the monitor mix features of your motu instead of the mixer.

hope this helps,

greetings

thomas
 
If I disregard the mixer then I don't have use of the faders or EQ. I'll try it. The 828 has 8 lines in, two of which are balanced. Monitoring is done through the mixer as well though I could switch it to the MOTU as everything goes through a headphone amp anyway.
Thanks for the response.
 
i would set all other gains at 0dB and turn the gain on your tube pre until you've got a strong signal. then adjust the next game step so that it's meter roughly the same, and so on until all gains have been set.

if you can bypass the gain stage of the mixer that would be best.
 
I'll try that too. I bet I could turn the gain off on the mixer. Not sure if the A/D convertor would work with the input gain off as that is whats sending the signal to the computer. I'll try.
Thanks.
 
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