You know Jason001, I live by the rule of if you don't have something meaningful to say, shut your f*cking mouth. Think about it....
As to the question about running a outboard microphone preamp to a mixer, I really didn't feel that the question needs to be answered. It is so obvious why you don't need to (but, then again, you bought a piece of gear that you didn't know the proper use of, so maybe not).
Your "special" answer...
Why be redundant?
That is the answer, a question. See if you can answer it before reading on. If it is obvious, quit reading now and move on to another post. You have passed recording 101.
Okay, you didn't pass the entrance exam for recording 102. Not totally unexpected, just means you didn't do your homework. Remedial class starts now.
The purpose of a outboard mic preamp is so that you don't have to use the mic preamp built into a mixer (and in the case of an Alesis on board mic preamp, this is a good thing).
The common proper way of using an outboard mic preamp is to plug your microphone into it, then run the preamp's output straight to the recording machines input of the track you want to record on.
What purpose would running the output of a mic preamp serve by running it to a mixing board first? (especially a cheapy less than $1000 dollar mixing console) You would just be adding more wire, ANOTHER MIC PREAMP, and circuitry to the signal, thus corrupting and coloring a nice audio signal that the outboard preamp will provide.
As to the Alesis consoles. How much do they cost? About $500-800? Dude, I paid $6000 ($7000 with the meter bridge) for my Soundcraft Ghost. About the same amount of inputs and mic pre's and aux sends. A few extra goodies. Anyway, the point is that my console hardly compares to REAL recording consoles used in major studios. Sure, it has a few of the features, and it basically sounds pretty damn good for the money. But IT IS A CHEAP MIXER TOO, AND IT COST A HELL OF A LOT MORE PER CHANNEL THAT ANY ALESIS CONSOLE DOES!!!
You get what you pay for. There is no way that a Alesis console will have as good of specs, or the quality of workmanship, or quality of design, or extent of features when compared to even a Mackie, much less more established recording consoles.
So that is what I mean about it being cheap. It is. You got what you paid for. Nothing more. It is only as good as it is, which isn't all that great. Sort of versatile, cheap, and compact. That is what you paid for. It is bound to have little annoying problems because at that price you didn't pay for a quality mixer that is suitable for nice music production. Basically, it is a toy mixer. A cheap way to learn how to use a mixer. A cheap way to do a little mixing. But certainly not a mixer that is going to offer a pristine signal path. Hell, my Ghost console is far from transparent to the audio, but a hell of a lot more so than any Alesis, or Mackie, or Studiomaster, or Spirit Folio is. The Alsis consoles just don't cost enough to provide quality components. The price per channel is not enough to provide the quality design of a real recording console.
There. I have come out of my "specialness" to respond. Was this what you expected?
Ed