Can you disable US-122 preamps?

[Chode]

Heya all,

My First post ever! How exciting...

I recently bought a preamp to beef up the input into my 122, since I wasn't happy with the sound from those inside the little box. I've since found that I need to have all the input levels on both the pre and the 122 pretty low to avoid clipping.

So the obvious solution would be to disable to preamps on the 122 but I haven't been able to work out how to do that so far, short of opening the thing up.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

 

[apl]

Heya all,

My First post ever! How exciting...

I recently bought a preamp to beef up the input into my 122, since I wasn't happy with the sound from those inside the little box. I've since found that I need to have all the input levels on both the pre and the 122 pretty low to avoid clipping.

So the obvious solution would be to disable to preamps on the 122 but I haven't been able to work out how to do that so far, short of opening the thing up.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

You can use the line ins. Or, you can go into the insert. I think that would involve rigging up a TRS connector with S going to ground on your pre, R going to hot on your preamp, and T left unhooked, and pluggin that into the insert.

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Chode:

Disable?

Pull the plug out! Voila, disabled!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Green Hornet

You might try running your preamp into an RNC compressor, or some other model, and then from there into your recording gear--this should help avoid clipping if you set the compressor up correctly.

 

[Chode]

Good ideas, thanks...

Green H, the compresser should stop the clipping, but my main annoyance is that I can't really play around with the drive and output controls on my external pre without going into the red.

Maybe I need to bite the bullet and get another interface. I haven't really looked around much, but I guess you can get something that has preamps you can switch on and off...or no preamps at all?

 

[scrubs]

If you're going into the XLR input of the 122, you're getting about +14dB of additional gain over the 1/4" input (with the preamp gain at '0'). Get an XLR-1/4"TRS cable to go from your preamp into the 122. Then, turn the input gain of the 122 all the way down and use your preamp gain only. That will minimize the influence of the 122 on your sound, but not completely eliminate it. I think RME makes some interfaces that have bypassable preamps, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

[Chode]

Thanks scrubs, sounds like the easiest option. So how much less than the +14dB you quoted on the XLR do you reckon I'll get?

Alright, showing my ignorance now, but do you get a decrease in signal quality using a XLR-1/4" cable vice XLR/XLR?

 

[apl]

Thanks scrubs, sounds like the easiest option. So how much less than the +14dB you quoted on the XLR do you reckon I'll get?

Alright, showing my ignorance now, but do you get a decrease in signal quality using a XLR-1/4" cable vice XLR/XLR?

No. You should not run an extarnal pre into the US122 XLR input because that is the input for directly connecting microphones only. You should connect your external pre output to the line in/instument input on the US122.

 

[scrubs]

Thanks scrubs, sounds like the easiest option. So how much less than the +14dB you quoted on the XLR do you reckon I'll get?

Alright, showing my ignorance now, but do you get a decrease in signal quality using a XLR-1/4" cable vice XLR/XLR?

There is no quality loss. 1/4"TRS is a balanced connection, just as XLR.

My point on the gain was (as apl said), the XLR input on the 122 is a microphone preamp which, with the gain at '0,' is still supplying ~14dB of input gain. Running your external preamp into the 122 preamp is just way too much gain for most microphones and will likely increase the noise on your recordings. Your external preamp should have enough gain to bypass the XLR preamp stage of the 122 and just go through the line-in. With the gain knob on the122 all the way to the left (LINE), you are effectively bypassing the gain stage of the 122.

 

[Chode]

Aha! Makes sense, cheers everybody!