compressor as mic pre??!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Tondreau
  • Start date Start date
Chris Tondreau

Chris Tondreau

Member
Hey there;

Yeah... I've been away for a bit, but it's nice to be back!! :D :D

A friend of mine bounced this off me to try, and though I was skeptical, I gave it a go - and it worked!! :confused: He suggested this.... Plug a mic into a compressor (in my case, I plugged an SM58 into my Behringer Composer Pro compressor), bypassing most of the compressor controls, and crank up the make-up gain. Voila.... hot enough signal to record a mic - even without a mic pre anywhere in the chain. (in my case, compressor directly to the inputs of the Delta44). This seems to defy logic, in that a mic pre's purpose is to boost a "mic level" signal to "line level" in order that it may be "heard" by the recording device. Does the make-up gain REALLY boost it that much on it's own, or am I missing something more simple here?

BTW - I only checked for the meters to respond in the Delta44, and sound coming from my speakers. I didn't actually record anything to hear what it sounds like. It sounded okay through the speakers, though, and the meters read up about 3/4 of the way up the green, but not into the yellow, without really hitting the mic that hard.

Any thoughts on this?

Chris
 
Wow. That's a pretty brilliant discovery.

I'm hitting myself right now for investing in all these mic pres. To think . . .

My suggestion would be to just buy a bunch of compressors, and just use the makeup gain.

Do it for all of your tracks, too.

That should sound pretty unique.
 
Compared to a mic pre, the noise floor should be thru the roof!
 
i guess what they are trying to say is that there is nothing magical about a mic pre. it just provides gain, and it is optimized for taking a mic signal. but providing gain is a pretty important task, a task that you want to use as much well designed circuitry as possible. the gain from your compressor (unless you have some really fancy compressor) is probably not comming from the best designed amp. there are some compressors that people sometimes use as mic pres... i have heard of people using an altec compressor this way... but only for some special applications.

by the way, if you have a new chinese condenser and an outboard phantom source you can probably get the signal running hot enough that you could just send it straight into whatever you are recording on.
 
You CAN drive a nail with a crescent wrench, but wouldn't it be better to use a hammer? :D
 
on the other hand doing the wrong thing is often the right thing to do.

amp distortion was originally thought to be a wrong use of a guitar amp.

speakers sometimes make great mics.

and so on...
 
DigitMus said:
You CAN drive a nail with a crescent wrench, but wouldn't it be better to use a hammer? :D
Click to expand...

Hehe.... I like your answer! :D Thanks to all who replied. I have a half-decent rack-mount mic pre, but was rather astonished that the compressor itself was able to provide enough gain to bring the mic level up to line level. I didn't figure that it was the holy grail of recording equipment revelations. It just surprised me that it was possible.

Chris
 
eeldip said:
on the other hand doing the wrong thing is often the right thing to do.

amp distortion was originally thought to be a wrong use of a guitar amp.

speakers sometimes make great mics.

and so on...
Click to expand...

Yep. The Beatles were told that the bass could not be brought up in the mix for fear of record skipping.
They were told that they could not do virtually everything they did. The Beatles and George Martin changed the way music was recorded forever. But, I am pretty sure that Geroge Martin used a mic-pre for mics. Just a guess.
 
Chris Tondreau said:
Hey there;

Yeah... I've been away for a bit, but it's nice to be back!! :D :D

A friend of mine bounced this off me to try, and though I was skeptical, I gave it a go - and it worked!! :confused: He suggested this.... Plug a mic into a compressor (in my case, I plugged an SM58 into my Behringer Composer Pro compressor), bypassing most of the compressor controls, and crank up the make-up gain. Voila.... hot enough signal to record a mic - even without a mic pre anywhere in the chain. (in my case, compressor directly to the inputs of the Delta44). This seems to defy logic, in that a mic pre's purpose is to boost a "mic level" signal to "line level" in order that it may be "heard" by the recording device. Does the make-up gain REALLY boost it that much on it's own, or am I missing something more simple here?

BTW - I only checked for the meters to respond in the Delta44, and sound coming from my speakers. I didn't actually record anything to hear what it sounds like. It sounded okay through the speakers, though, and the meters read up about 3/4 of the way up the green, but not into the yellow, without really hitting the mic that hard.

Any thoughts on this?

Chris
Click to expand...


Yooooooo'!!!!!!!!!! Whut up Chris my man!!!!!:cool:

D@mn good question!!!!

Makes you wanna' go "HMMMMMmmmmmmm"!:cool: :) :cool:
 
Hey Q!!

Busy at school these days, but all's well. Lookin' forward to hangin out in the summer time and doin the jamFest thingy.

Ahh.... but is a bass player a musician??!! Apparently not, because they don't seem to freakin' exist in the first place. We can't find a bass player.... Ugh!! Hey.... want a gig here in Canada?

:D

Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top