By-passing mic pre's....

Gorty

Gorty

New member
I have a couple of rackmount mic pre's and the BOSS BR1600 Digital recorder.
The n00b question I have is: How do I by-pass the BOSS inbuilt mic-pre's?
I'm wondering if you can do it or not? :confused:
 
well the purpose of a mic pre is to apply gain to a low level signal and sometimes add color or character to a tone. generally this is done by increasing the amount of gain on the preamp....

so basically what your gonna want to do is turn the gain on the boss mic pre all the way down and turn the gain on the rackmount pres up. now your signal will be amplified at the rackmount pre and pass through the boss pre completely unaltered.

i hope i have helped at least a little bit and if you have any more questions feel free to ask :D
 
So by turning the mic/input down on the BOSS Unit, plugging either the guitar/mic into my rackmount pre, out of the rackmount pre and into the BOSS mic/input, the signal will only be altered/adjusted from the rack pre and not in any way or form be influenced by the BOSS onboard pre's?

I have been recording for a few years now but I'm still using the stand alone BOSS BR1600 and want to improve on the onboard pre's so I bought myself a TOFT ATC-2 and a ART Digital MPA II.
 
Gorty said:
I have a couple of rackmount mic pre's and the BOSS BR1600 Digital recorder.
The n00b question I have is: How do I by-pass the BOSS inbuilt mic-pre's?
I'm wondering if you can do it or not? :confused:
Click to expand...

IF the BOSS has inserts, use an insert cable (post pre-amp, insert return)and you will have bypassed the unit's pre-amps. Just turning the BOSS pre-amps down does NOT bypass them, it just means that the pre-amps act as a unity gain amp.
 
Kingofpain678 said:
now your signal will be amplified at the rackmount pre and pass through the boss pre completely unaltered.
Click to expand...

There is no amplifier in the world that can pass a signal "completely unaltered". Practically unaltered, yes, but I wouldn't bet on that quality level from a Boss unit.

If the issue with the Boss pre is noise, then an external pre is a valid solution. It is still better to bypass unnecessary amp stages, irrespective of their quality.
 
ah i shouldnt have said "completely" lol, but pretty much unaltered.
i mean if you dont have post preamp inserts then turning the gain down on the boss is gonna be your best bet.

it may not entirely bypass them 100% but it will be much better than to have to gain on them all the way up.


good luck to you in any case :D
 
Gorty said:
So by turning the mic/input down on the BOSS Unit, plugging either the guitar/mic into my rackmount pre, out of the rackmount pre and into the BOSS mic/input, the signal will only be altered/adjusted from the rack pre and not in any way or form be influenced by the BOSS onboard pre's?

I have been recording for a few years now but I'm still using the stand alone BOSS BR1600 and want to improve on the onboard pre's so I bought myself a TOFT ATC-2 and a ART Digital MPA II.
Click to expand...

Cool...Malcom Toft used to post here when that product came out...how are your results with it?
 
Gorty said:
I have a couple of rackmount mic pre's and the BOSS BR1600 Digital recorder.
The n00b question I have is: How do I by-pass the BOSS inbuilt mic-pre's?
I'm wondering if you can do it or not? :confused:
Click to expand...

Gorty, I have a BR1600 also and I use it a lot. Mostly I just use the mike pres that are on it but I also have an old analog '66 Studer 089 desk with 12 pre's on it. If I want to track on the Studer into the BR1600 then I just direct line out of the individual Studer pre's into the BR1600's individual line in jacks using standard 1/4" patch cables. If the Studer pre's output is line level (-10db - which it can be) then that goes into the BR1600's 1/4" channel inputs and is received by the BR1600 at -10db with the BR1600's master input knob set to maximum and the individual channel gain knobs set to zero.

So, if you want to go analog out of your mike pre's into the BR1600, then just use 1/4" patch cables out of the pre's line out jacks into the BR1600's channel jacks, set the master input knob to maximum and the channel input gain knobs to zero. If you find it is still a bit hissy, it is most likely the master input knob on the BR1600 being set to max and you can back that off a bit until it's clean - usual one or two gradients back from maximum on the master input knob does it for me. That'll drop the input gain back a db but that is probably safe given that it's doing a digital conversion and the BR1600 starts to clip at -7db (or +3db) over line level gain anyway.

And you're not really using the BR1600's mike pre's as gain increasers this way. As has already been said, you're using them as a unit gain input path.

If you have a digital pre with SPIDF output then you can go digital into the BR1600 at either 16 bit 44.1kHz or 24 bit 44.1kHz, into the SPIDF in jack using and appropriate cable. The manual shows you how to assign the digital inputs to one (or two if you're stereo) of channels 1 to 8. I don't think you can assign to 9/10 to 15/16 using digital in. Using digital in obviously completely bypasses the BR1600's analog inputs and mike pre's.

Just remember though that if you go in at 24 bit it will record it at 16 bit. That's probably okay though because the BR1600 does do it's AD conversion at 24 bit delta sigma oversample then drops it to 16 bit when it lays down the .VR8 internal track file anyway. So probably 24 bit 44.1kHz is the right digital output rate from your digital pre's.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Geoff
 
Last edited:
darrin_h2000 said:
Cool...Malcom Toft used to post here when that product came out...how are your results with it?
Click to expand...

I haven't used it yet! I'm building a rack for the pre's and re-arranging the studio at the moment. I'm still learning with the help from members here on how to get it all set up. :o
 
jedblue said:
And you're not really using the BR1600's mike pre's as gain increasers this way. As has already been said, you're using them as a unit gain input path.
Click to expand...
What effect on the signal would this have?

jedblue said:
If you have a digital pre with SPIDF output then you can go digital into the BR1600 at either 16 bit 44.1kHz or 24 bit 44.1kHz, into the SPIDF in jack using and appropriate cable. The manual shows you how to assign the digital inputs to one (or two if you're stereo) of channels 1 to 8. I don't think you can assign to 9/10 to 15/16 using digital in. Using digital in obviously completely bypasses the BR1600's analog inputs and mike pre's.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Geoff
Click to expand...

You wouldn't be able to point me to the page number would ya Geoff? :o
 
jedblue said:
If you have a digital pre with SPIDF output then you can go digital into the BR1600 at either 16 bit 44.1kHz or 24 bit 44.1kHz, into the SPIDF in jack using and appropriate cable.
Cheers

Geoff
Click to expand...

Do you use the "Digital In".......as the SPIDF in?
 

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jedblue said:
Page 261 of the main manual Gorty, digital in assign. Looks like they patch to track one & two only.

Geoff
Click to expand...

Cool, so on my external mic pre-amp I can output a stereo pair of tracks and input them through the digital in on the BOSS to tracks 1 and 2? If so that's fine, if I need to move the tracks I can just move them to tracks 3-8 etc.
 
Gorty said:
So ideally, the best way to go with using the external mic pre's is to go straight in the DIGITAL IN.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I'd do, then, as you say, move them to the tracks you want them to be once they're in.

Geoff
 
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