Do I need a mic preamp/DI box?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hoodoo
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Hoodoo

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I have an older Marantz PMD740 (6-channel mixer) that I was planning to use for mixing/recording my vocals and guitar into my PC sequencer software. I also am using a Boss SE-70 Super Effects Processor box for my guitar, though I'm planning to run a clean (dry) signal into my PC and creating amp sounds with Amplitube or a comparable effects plug-in.

Do I need anything else to run my vocals/guitar signal into my 1/8" Line-in input of my soundcard?
 
With a suitable adaptor, you should be able to send the output from the mixer to the line in on your sound card.

Mixer being line-out and sound card being line-in seems like a good match.

Ed
 
Is there an especially "clean" way of connecting my mixer to my PC soundcard? Should I go RCA out to 1/8" converter plug, or 1/4" out to 1/8" plug?

I assume that a stereo connection isn't needed since I'm sending mono vocal and guitar signal and doing all the reverb/compression processing on the PC via effects plugins...
 
Either plug should work. I would not expect to see/hear any difference.

Most mixer outs are 1/4 based, but the model you have is RCA based (at least that's what the users guide shows).

Ed
 
Yep that's right just plug it in and you should be laughing (or maybe singing?). The only 'cleaner' way would be if you were able to use balanced connections ... but since your gear does not offer this, any of the adaptors/cable you use should be fine.
 
Noisedude-

According to my mixer manual, it does do balanced output (I assume this is the same as a TRS plug?). My soundcard is an SB Audigy 2 (don't mock me, I play games too), which obviously has the 1/8" line-in plug.

Is the SB card line-in plug NOT a balanced input (meaning stereo?)?!? If I recorded a stereo guitar signal into my mixer (from my SE-70 Stereo effects processor), could I then carry that stereo signal directly into my soundcard and into my recording software?
 
Balanced is different from stereo, it probably won't be a huge deal whether you're running balanced or unbalanced from your mixer to the soundcard unless it's a long run.

You should be able to do stereo into the soundcard, just make sure whatever you're recording into (the program) is set to record in stereo. I would say just run the RCA outs of the mixer into the 1/8" in on the soundcard and be on your way. I think that either way (1/4" to 1/8" or RCA to 1/8") would pretty much be the same to most people ears. If you really want to test out which may be cleaner, try hooking up both of them without any mics or anything running into your mixer (basiaclly, just your mixer with no signal into it, running into the soundacrd) and check to see if you can read your recording levels, if your program has that ability, whichever one has the lowest (probably should be from around -100 to -80 decibels, rough estimate) I would say go with that, but that's just how I would do it. But honestly, either way, you probably won't notice a difference. Just remember to rock.
 
to be honest, your sound card probably introduces more noise than a short stretch of unbalanced cabling anyway. don't worry about it, just bear it in mind when you upgrade to that audiophile ;)
 
I just invested in good midi keyboard/controller (Radium 61), so that Audiophile will have to wait :(

I'm using my SB Audigy 2 with the kx project ASIO drivers. Any input on this as a better solution than the Creative ASIO drivers?

My latency seems decent so far--- I'm on a Pentium IV 2.8 Ghz PC with 1 Gig RAM. Latency around 10-11 ms. Is this decent, or should I expect less with an Audiophile card?
 
Dunno about the audiophile but on my Delta 44 I get 6ms according to the Audio Setup panel in Cubase.
 
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