DAV BG1 too loud?

  • Thread starter Thread starter slotter
  • Start date Start date
Thanks, MSH.

We'll take off the ATTY, per your suggestion. I was operating under a mistaken assumption, as you have percieved.

Plenty of useful places to put the ATTY, I was considering getting a second.
 
Having looked a little closer at this thread, I would suggest that you just turn down the gain as needed to keep the levels safe. My comment was just a general way to save money if padding were really needed for best results, but I don't think it's needed here.

The example I gave is one where padding really was needed for best results. My (former) 3M M-56 was not designed for adjustable output levels and the output was a bit much for my Mackie, so padding each output by 6 dB really did improve the sound by avoiding overload on the Mackie. That is a case where you not only don't want to overload the following input stage, but you really don't even want to get close, because the sound starts to degrade below overload. The levels on the tape on the M-56, however, were very critical and turning the level down there arbitrarily to keep the output level down would directly decrease the signal to noise performance as well.

I don't use the BG-1 and forgot that the green light is lighting at a pretty high level. If it were my design, that +18 lamp would be a yellow warning indicator and I'd add a green light at +4. My handy MixPre has LEDs at -30,-15, 0, +4, +8, +12 and +16, which gives an adequate picture of where levels are at. In your case, no need to worry about cranking the gain to light the +18 light, just set it for safe levels and press record.

Cheers,

Otto
 
slotter said:
I always thought that to get the best sound and singal to noise out of a preamp is to have it as loud as possible without clipping...
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Very true and it's sometime necessary to pad to keep your gain staging optimum... but not always
slotter said:
I have also read whilst researching the ATTY that using a line attenuator can allow you to pump the preamp a little more and get a fatter sound out of the mic.. it just seems to give me more options when tracking.
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True again... but only if you're unhappy with the sound you're presently getting...

I was just trying to state the obvious... you never mentioned that you were unhappy with the sound... just that you couldn't get your light steady green without clipping on transients...

I own a BG-1... I don't own an attenuator... I'm happy with the performance
 
slotter said:
I always thought that to get the best sound and singal to noise out of a preamp is to have it as loud as possible without clipping.. but the BG1 clips the UA-101 really easily.
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This can actually be far from correct. "Best sound" and "best signal to noise" may not be the same thing and may not occur at the same settings.

Back when I tracked to my M-56 using the preamps on my little Mackie, I would crank the recorder input gain levels by at least 6 dB. Again, the best sound was obtained when the peak output levels were nowhere near the +22 maximum output of the preamp channels.

Signal to noise was probably exactly the same, regardless of the recorder gain setting, primarily because the tape noise dominated, but even without tape noise, signal to noise in the preamp signal would probably have been about the same either way. Theoretically, signal to noise might have been best at the highest setting to avoid clipping. OTOH, the signal was much cleaner by operating a safe amount below the maximum output level.

Cheers,

Otto
 
slotter said:
ooh massive master

thanks for replying.. but I have no idea where to start in terms of calibrating the convertors in the UA-101... totally lost me on that one!
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I'd unfortunately have to bet that you can't. The best you can probably do is find out what line level is. And that won't really help anything anyway (except it'll let you know how much headroom you're missing out on).
 
Thanks everybody, for chiming in.

I'm learning as I go.... :o
 
yeh guys
thanks for all the replies... it's really interesting.
I'm not actually unhappy with the sound of the preamp at all... I was just going on what I'd heard about optimum SNR... but now you guys haves explained that it's not really neccesary and that the bg1 LED lights at a pretty high level anyway, I'm not worried...
I also have no problems on spending 80 bucks on a piece of kit that could change the sound of my gear or give me more options... so It's all good right now... I may get an ATTY, I may not.. at least now I know it's not something I NEED... a bit like all the guitars I've managed to collect over the years... it's now more about different sounds and flavours than "I NEED another guitar"

thanks again
:)
 
supercreep
just checked your album.. sounds great man.. some great 70's rock sounds ... sabbath, zepplin ... it's all there... great stuff :)
 
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