Behringer Mic Pre-Amp

J

jlmedia

New member
hey ive just got the behringer ultragain valve mic pre-amp and i know its valve and its bound to have signal buzzings but it was stated not to but whats the point in me having it if i carn't even go high enough to pre-amp it up on warmth,
A friend to me to get a gate or something for it to sort out any background noise,
Any extra's you think i should get please tell me and i am pritty new and limited at the moment,
I have
A set fo edirol ma-15d monitors
a m-audio oxygen 8 v2 midi keyboard
a behringer ultragain valve mic pre-amp
a alesis multimix 6fx mixer
a audio technica AT3035 condensor microphone
a metal pop filter
a rode psa1 studio boom arm
adobe audition, ableton live 6.0.1 [had no expeirence] and im on the verge of looking for more

Any tips And i'd apreciat it!!
And i've just got a load more chunks of cash from christmas and jobs so i can buy somethings.. and i am a voice over artist/producer if your wondering what i want it for,

Thanks !!
 
a gate will only kill the background noise generated by the cheap behringer pre during passages with no mic signal, when the unit is passing signalk the background noise will be heard in the track. That's what behringer does...everything cheaply, and badly.
 
jlmedia said:
hey ive just got the behringer ultragain valve mic pre-amp and i know its valve and its bound to have signal buzzings but it was stated not to but whats the point in me having it if i carn't even go high enough to pre-amp it up on warmth,
A friend to me to get a gate or something for it to sort out any background noise,
Click to expand...

First things first: replace the valves/tubes in your Behringer because the stock tubes are crap. I'd recommend a matched pair of Tung Sol 12AX7's (they may be Russian-made, but the pairs my friends have all work great and I will get a pair myself). If you're going to get some tubes with lower gain factor, get a matched pair of JAN Phillips 5751's. Replacing the tubes will boost performance.
 
I wouldn't expect buzzing from a pre-amp.

Before casting the accusatory finger at it, check your signal path. Make sure your cables are actually okay.
 
LemonTree said:
a gate will only kill the background noise generated by the cheap behringer pre during passages with no mic signal, when the unit is passing signalk the background noise will be heard in the track. That's what behringer does...everything cheaply, and badly.
Click to expand...

It was recomended by the sales team of dolphin music because they say they've had it up full with no background noise or generated signal noise,
Any ideas on gates because this aturaly may be just my problem now and how much can they remove of your background noise?
 
Metal Marc said:
First things first: replace the valves/tubes in your Behringer because the stock tubes are crap. I'd recommend a matched pair of Tung Sol 12AX7's (they may be Russian-made, but the pairs my friends have all work great and I will get a pair myself). If you're going to get some tubes with lower gain factor, get a matched pair of JAN Phillips 5751's. Replacing the tubes will boost performance.
Click to expand...

i doubt that throwing tubes at that pre will really do much for it. seems like a waste when there are much better products out there such as the DMP3 that will get him going without any fuss at all.
 
jlmedia said:
It was recomended by the sales team of dolphin music because they say they've had it up full with no background noise or generated signal noise,
Any ideas on gates because this aturaly may be just my problem now and how much can they remove of your background noise?
Click to expand...

as lemontree said quite clearly, the gate won't solve your problem because it doesn't eliminate continous sounds below a certain dB level, it will only silence your track until a sound loud enough opens the gate: at that point everything in the track can be heard, preamp's buzzing included.

also, do yourself a favour: sell your preamp, get another one, and never buy from beringher again!
 
Yo JL! Welcome to the board! I agree with some of the advice you have received, and I disagree with some of it as well. Take a deep breath, because recording is usually more complicated than just setting up a signal chain.

You say you have noise, and you think it is "hum". Hum is a certain kind of sound, and I doubt the Behringer preamp is the cause, although it could be. Hum often comes from interference, such as when you pass audio patch cables over power carrying lines, or a ground fault. There are other kinds of noise, such as static, which often comes from radio frequency interference. Yes, your guitar amp, and that Behringer can pick up AM, CB, and sometimes short wave.

The most likely causes of your problem are gain staging and interference. Look at every point in your signal chain where you can make it louder or quieter, whether you call it volume or gain. At every point, turn it up and down and try to find a balance with *less* hum. As noted above, you need to check every cable and replace if necessary, and don't run audio cables up against power cables! Try moving components in the signal chain to different locations and see if the hum changes. If it does, find which components don't like to be close together.

I do disagree with one thing above. Behringer is not the incarnation of the Devil, and their gear does not suck all of the time, in every way. They are the Walmart of audio, with lots of cheap boxes with fancy "PRO" names, guaranteed to be made in China, and which are often copies of other people's gear, with inferior manufacturing tolerances and quality control. But you know? I've had several pieces of Behringer gear do exactly what I wanted them to do, for cheap, without a hitch.

Incedentally, one of them is an 8 channel preamp/AD convertor- AD8000. OK- it has cheap preamps, but it does not "hum", or anything else, and of many of the things I could use it for, voiceovers is something it does fairly well. Usually, cheap pres distort when they are cranked up, so back off on the Behringer, and spread the gain around to other components in the signal chain. If the problem really is the Behringer, find out and return it while you can. I also agree with one above comment- Buy an M-Audio DMP-3. It's just a cheap preamp that sucks less. In this case, try turning down the analog and turning up the digital gain to reduce noise, and look for evidence of interference. Good luck-Richie
 
Richard Monroe said:
Yo JL! Welcome to the board! I agree with some of the advice you have received, and I disagree with some of it as well. Take a deep breath, because recording is usually more complicated than just setting up a signal chain.

You say you have noise, and you think it is "hum". Hum is a certain kind of sound, and I doubt the Behringer preamp is the cause, although it could be. Hum often comes from interference, such as when you pass audio patch cables over power carrying lines, or a ground fault. There are other kinds of noise, such as static, which often comes from radio frequency interference. Yes, your guitar amp, and that Behringer can pick up AM, CB, and sometimes short wave.

The most likely causes of your problem are gain staging and interference. Look at every point in your signal chain where you can make it louder or quieter, whether you call it volume or gain. At every point, turn it up and down and try to find a balance with *less* hum. As noted above, you need to check every cable and replace if necessary, and don't run audio cables up against power cables! Try moving components in the signal chain to different locations and see if the hum changes. If it does, find which components don't like to be close together.

I do disagree with one thing above. Behringer is not the incarnation of the Devil, and their gear does not suck all of the time, in every way. They are the Walmart of audio, with lots of cheap boxes with fancy "PRO" names, guaranteed to be made in China, and which are often copies of other people's gear, with inferior manufacturing tolerances and quality control. But you know? I've had several pieces of Behringer gear do exactly what I wanted them to do, for cheap, without a hitch.

Incedentally, one of them is an 8 channel preamp/AD convertor- AD8000. OK- it has cheap preamps, but it does not "hum", or anything else, and of many of the things I could use it for, voiceovers is something it does fairly well. Usually, cheap pres distort when they are cranked up, so back off on the Behringer, and spread the gain around to other components in the signal chain. If the problem really is the Behringer, find out and return it while you can. I also agree with one above comment- Buy an M-Audio DMP-3. It's just a cheap preamp that sucks less. In this case, try turning down the analog and turning up the digital gain to reduce noise, and look for evidence of interference. Good luck-Richie
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, Since having everyone quiet and nothing else on around the house i have picked up its just background noise from my pc and such so a friend told me on skype to go to a gate and there are some pritty cheap but decent gates/limitors with enhancers and compressors built in with them so im guessing to get one,
Thanks
 
jlmedia said:
Thanks for that, Since having everyone quiet and nothing else on around the house i have picked up its just background noise from my pc and such so a friend told me on skype to go to a gate and there are some pritty cheap but decent gates/limitors with enhancers and compressors built in with them so im guessing to get one,
Thanks
Click to expand...

Again, you're missing the point of what a gate actualy does. Do some reading before you throw money at a band aid that isn't going to solve the problem.

If it's background noise from the PC try and eliminate it...quilt over the PC while you record, mic set up with the pattern rejecting noise from the direction of the PC, etc.
 
yeah, lemontree's right. also you might want to have a look at the computers shielding.
or maybe you have a noisy fan that you might want to replace, and it wouldn't be a costy operation, way cheeper than buying a piece of equipment that won't solve your problem.
 
Aha! You have another kind of noise-ambient noise. I think you'll find a noise gate will not solve your problem. What will, unfortunately, is the hard work of creating a recording space that doesn't make noise! #1-Get that CPU out of your room!-Richie
 
jlmedia said:
hey ive just got the behringer ultragain valve mic pre-amp and i know its valve and its bound to have signal buzzings but it was stated not to but whats the point in me having it if i carn't even go high enough to pre-amp it up on warmth,
A friend to me to get a gate or something for it to sort out any background noise,
Any extra's you think i should get please tell me and i am pritty new and limited at the moment,
I have
A set fo edirol ma-15d monitors
a m-audio oxygen 8 v2 midi keyboard
a behringer ultragain valve mic pre-amp
a alesis multimix 6fx mixer
a audio technica AT3035 condensor microphone
a metal pop filter
a rode psa1 studio boom arm
adobe audition, ableton live 6.0.1 [had no expeirence] and im on the verge of looking for more

Any tips And i'd apreciat it!!
And i've just got a load more chunks of cash from christmas and jobs so i can buy somethings.. and i am a voice over artist/producer if your wondering what i want it for,

Thanks !!
Click to expand...

It's almost certainly your studio boom arm or your pop filter.
























J/K.


I don't see any A/D conversion or USB/Firewire outputs on the Alesis so I'm guessing you're using your PC's soundcard to interface with your preamp. I'd start there.
 
As richard said to get it out of the room but i have seen on dolphin musics website and before i say i know your saying to do stuff and not waste money but for £24 i can get a small soundproofed recording booth which i found incredibal.. it may aturaly help


[ EDIT ] : Never mind thats lighting for one
 
If you get a gate, make sure it's a good gate, or else you'll have the problem of a cheap noise gate adding it's own noise floor. So in other words, to get the gate you really need, you'll spend as much or more than you would have spent on purchasing a good preamp in the first place.

Basically, you are now buying cheap gear to fix a problem caused by cheap gear. Dump the Behringer and get yourself a good preamp.

If you have a background noise problem, that could be many things. What does the noise sound like: hiss, buzz, rumble?
 
Hey sonicalbert ill get you a recording sample and i just noticed something strange.. when i don't have my mixer plugged in to the output of the preamp the dial goes back to -20 but with it plugged in it goes full out to the other side in red at +2,
Don't know if this helps..

Also I Did purchase the preamp for £110 Which is like $180 which for me when im 14 years of age and ive had a year or two in sound i haven't got that much money invested left and plus it was recomended for the money i had and some other people use it in a atural studio and they have cranked it up to 10/10 for some reason :S

Heres the sample
http://www.quickfilepost.com/download.do?get=37eecadff4ada35f472e61aef619d3d9
I Would also say its around hissing and humming so im stuck
 
I listened to your sample. It's either gain staging or your converters as Supercreep mentioned already. If you're using your computer's a/d, you might want to consider purchasing a new interface.

If it's gain staging, use a 1/4" plug from the Ultrgain to the mixer and do not use the xlr. That bypasses the mic pre on your mixer. Also, you're probably not finding much advantage by using the Ultragain to begin with. You can skip it altogether and use the mic pre's on your mixer.

Be sure to read the manuals for both the ultragain and the mixer.

Cheers,
 
Metal Marc said:
First things first: replace the valves/tubes in your Behringer because the stock tubes are crap. I'd recommend a matched pair of Tung Sol 12AX7's (they may be Russian-made, but the pairs my friends have all work great and I will get a pair myself). If you're going to get some tubes with lower gain factor, get a matched pair of JAN Phillips 5751's. Replacing the tubes will boost performance.
Click to expand...

Yeah...don't do that. The tubes basically do nothing in the Ultra gain. Changing them out is a waste of time.

The buzzing could be a bunch of things from external power problems to internal circuitry issues. I'd send it back too...it's not worth sorting out what the actual problem is...any potential fix would likely cost more than the preamp is worth. Just send it back to Dolphin and tell them to replace it for you.

Frank
 
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