Does No Trim Still Color The Sound?

[soundchaser59]

If I have a really warm, fat sound coming from a tube mic preamp, do I have to run it directly to the recorder to keep the sound from getting "color" added? If I do that, then I lose the chance to patch in stuff with inserts.

Or, if I put that tube preamp signal into my board first, with the board's trim control fully counterclockwise (fully off), will the board's preamp still color the sound? Or will my tube sound remain relatively uncolored?? Does the board trim only add its own color to the sound if I turn it up and use it for gain?

Otherwise, I dont know how to bypass the board's pre's and still have access to the insert signal path..... I will test all of this and see if I can hear the difference, but I would be interested in hearing opinions......

BTW, the board is a Mackie SR24-4 VLZ. Thanks for any tips.
SC

 

[guido #2]

If you connect anything to either the mic or the line input of a channel on that mixer, the very next thing that signal will see is the preamp, even with the trim turned all the way down.

 

[soundchaser59]

So are you thinking that preamp will taint my source signal with its own "color" even if I dont use any boost or gain?? I guess I'm hoping it wont color the sound unless I start to boost the signal.......

 

[xstatic]

No, it will do its thing regardless. Whether or not you like what you hear could be a different story. Why not just run the output of the tube preamp straight to the compressor, and from the compressor straight to the recorder?

 

[soundchaser59]

I dont know why I hadn' tnought of that. I guess the board doesn't really have to be in the signal chain at all if the tube pre is dirivng everything enough.... thanks for the reminder.