Focusrite Penta Question

genesisariana

genesisariana

New member
I have a penta and it works pretty good on acoustic guitar, but not getting that great a quality with vocals. I have a mk319 and an adk a51, tried both, turned the "tube sound" all the way down, and they still sound muddy with no definition. Am I doing something wrong, or should I not use this on vocals?
 
I was about as non-thrilled as I could be with the Focusrite Plat/Penta stuff if that means anything.

I'd try a different preamp. Although if you bypass everything (the EQ, compression, whatever else, certainly any sort of "tube essence" and what not), it was... reasonable. Nothing close to the RNP, Grace, True, etc. stuff though.

And of course, keep plenty of headroom through the thing. Pretend the ceiling is at -12dBFS or even a little lower (which is a good thing with pretty much any preamp). You might find a lot (a LOT) more definition in the highs if you were previously overdriving the input stage.
 
Thanks for the information. It might have been overdriven, I was running a mic pre into the penta, I will try backing that out, or bypassing it and going straight through. I guess its input stage is pretty finicky.
 
The input stage is the most important part of -- Well, of anything. It's the first chance to get it "perfect" - And the first chance to ruin it completely. It's one of few phases with no "undo" control for that matter.

The general "rule of thumb" (for lack of a better term) would be to keep as much out of that chain as possible. Certainly no dynamics control (unless you're looking for the coloration of the controller - but rarely ever to actually tame the dynamics - No reason for it on the way in if you're observing reasonable recording levels), as little (or no) EQ as possible (I'll move a mic around the same cubic foot of space for an hour to get what I'm going for before putting an EQ circuit in the chain - again, unless that particular EQ is giving you a particular "flavor" that you want - Manley's Massive Passive, API's 5500 - Something along those lines. But not to "correct" the signal on the way in if it's something that can be corrected before the mic).

Straight-line gain and lots of headroom. It's a good thing.
 
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