Gefell m930, Sound Card, or Preamp

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rick Shepherd
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Rick Shepherd

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Hi, I am thinking about purchasing the Gefell m930, but I wanted to ask you all something. I have been recording vocals and acoustic guitar using the following chain:

Audio Technica AT4033 (Vocals) --> Mackie 808s (My PA system) --> Tape output to PC sound card (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, nothing special really) --> Using "Traction" software from the Mackie company for recording.

My question is this: Should I be concerning myself more with purchasing a good sound card or mic preamp at this point, or what?

I hear alot of people talk about preamps, but is my Mackie 808s mixer/amp a good enough, reasonable thing to use? Or, do I need to get a nice preamp that goes direct to a recording type sound card.

Or is my currect sound card good enough (not the weakest link) at this point? Somehow, I am thinking maybe any mic I get might not give me good results unless I have some other equipment in place to take full advantage of the mic quality.

Eventually, I would like to get all of the above items, a preamp, good sound card, but at this point, I am wondering if a better mic alone will make a big difference for me.

So far, the AT 4033 is a good mic, very smooth and clean, a little on the bright side for my voice, but nice just the same. But I am wondering if just stepping up to the Gefell M930 will make a big difference, or if simply taking the Mackie 808s out of this equation and putting in a nice preamp will make the biggest difference. I think I am getting noise from the Mackie, but quiet is not my only issue here, it is also a quality sound.

Do sound cards really make that much difference in the recording quality and sound. I have never had any experience with high end recording sound cards. I have a Audigy card on one of my PCs, and the Santa Cruz on the recording PC, so is a sound card what I need?

Thanks in advance!
 
I need a more complete answer here though. So this piece of gear does away with tht eneed for a recording sound card. Also, I noticed that it does not have output for monitors.
 
Well, my .02 -

The 4033 is a decent mic. The PA preamp is probably pretty much crap, as well as the soundcard. I think the gefell mic will not shine nearly as bright thru the crappy signal path.

Maybe look into an interface with a couple decent preamps?

What kind of budget do you have?
 
What if I just go for an M-Audio 1010LT or the E-MU 1820M? What kind of quality will either of these give me using the AT4033? I assume that you don't use preamps on this kind of card because they have their own preamps built into them?

Another thing: If these sound cards hard preamps build into them, then why waste all your money on some expensive preamp?
 
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I have the E-mu 1820M and for me it's the Bee's Tits.

Many people have problems with the E-mu drivers, so you never know with it. If it works for you, you will love it.

The preamps are good. Better than the M Audio DMP3, Behringer or Presonus pre's imho. They will do you fine for awhile until you try a high quality preamp. Then there's no turning back. But there's a reason a great preamp costs up around a grand for two channels.

I've got the Brick. For me, it's awesome. Some day I'll try some Great River or Sebatron pre, but for me it's a beauty for a good price. Of course , OALA (opinions are like...)

Audio Technica makes some killer mics, by the way. The 4033 is a smart choice.
 
So it looks like I need a good preamp as well as a decent recording PC card, eh?
 
yeah I think you really need to upgrade both those components... if you could get yourself a fireface, firepod, aardvark Q10 or something similar and a decent budget preamp like the brick or RNP, you would see a TREMENDOUS improvement in sound quality.
 
Rick Shepherd said:
So it looks like I need a good preamp as well as a decent recording PC card, eh?
Click to expand...

Yep, like they are all saying - you will eventually need to do both BEFORE the gefell. If you get an interface with a pre, it will be a lot better than what you are doing now. If you get a GOOD stand alone pre, and new interface/converters, the sound quality will be even better still.
 
You will probably want some stand alone pres eventually, but I would steer away from soundcards and look at dedicated hardware solutions.
 
If it was me, and I was in you position with $1,000 - $1,200, I'd skip the all-in-one interfaces (that include AD/DA conversion and preamps). I would also skip the mid-grade preamps like the RNP--which isn't even as good as the DMP3 on acou guit IMO.

Instead I'd buy a real preamp now. You already have a very good mic.

I'd buy a Speck preamp (they sound great on acou guit, btw). $700
I'd also buy a Kurzweil Rumor reverb AD/DA unit. $500

The Speck is a true high-end preamp that has received great reviews everywhere, and there are clips of it at the Listening Sessions and at recording.org.

Same for the Rumor--great reverbs of the KSP8--plus the AD/DA conversion is reported to be as good or better than the RME or Lynx stuff--which is very, very good. It also has S/PDIF out.

Then I would look at upgrading the 4033.

Just another opinion.
 
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