Leveling Amplifier as Preamp

TubeGuy

New member
Hi,
Can’t seem to find the answer online so thought I’d ask. It’s a little weird, but can you use a leveling amplifier as a preamp? For example on drum overheads I would like to replace my ART TubeMix with some proper outboard pres, and I’m trying to do only tube with a small budget. I also need 2 outboard compressors so I was thinking of buying 2 Summit Audio TLA-50s to use as compressors on a stereo bus as well as preamps for the 2 overheads (I already have a 1 channel preamp to use on bass drum). I mean overheads usually need to be compressed anyways so is it bad to go direct to the levelling amp and use its gain instead of preamps? And if you didn’t want to compress I’m thinking you could just turn down the gain reduction all the way, what will the differences be, is it a bad idea?

Thanks so much for your help
 
There is nothing to prevent you from doing it. But it won't have phantom power or very much gain compared to a proper preamp.
 
You can't use line inputs instead of mic inputs, because they have low gain, they are noisy and they haven't phantom power (if you need it).
 
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