Getting several preamps into your soundcard

G

Guitarski

New member
Hi,

I'm sure this is pretty elementary, sorry about that, but then again not entrirely newbie either, here goes:
Suppose you have several preamps, each having its own quality that you want to preserve. Suppose your number of channels is now greater than two, while your soundcard only has left and right inputs. Sending the bunch to an active mixer would pile preamp upon preamp, because the mixer has preamps too, right?
Sending it to a passive or resistance mixer would result in a 12dB drop and the added required gain would result in more distortion, have I got that right?
This must be an extremely, painfully well-known issue, but run it by me again, if you will, please.

Thanks/regards
Guitarski
 
An 'active mixer' should have some line inputs too. Are you really trying to record from multiple preamps at the same time? If so, why wouldn't you want to record them in separate tracks?
Also the fact that your 'soundcard only has L and R inputs' makes me think its not one designed for audio recording, but more likely an OEM or gamer device.
 
Guitarski said:
Hi,Suppose you have several preamps, each having its own quality that you want to preserve. Suppose your number of channels is now greater than two, while your soundcard only has left and right inputs. Sending the bunch to an active mixer would pile preamp upon preamp, because the mixer has preamps too, right?
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity, what are you trying to do ? What are you recording ? This is all rather unclear and mysterious.
 
I know it's weird, let me explain. I use an M-audio Audiophile 192 PCI card, which sounds ok to me, but it's a general purpose sound card, or whatever.
I recently got the Focusrite ISA One, which is great, but used properly you can only connect one mic, which isn't a lot when you try to capture a guitar cab. I realized that and considered the 2-cnannel version, but then I would be totally stuck with that sound and now I finally realize I need a multi channel AD converter. The Emu 1616 looks ok to me. As a one man boy band I'm not going to need more than 4 inputs.
If anyone has any alternative products in mind, please don't hesitate.
 
Two at least. One for a bass trap (of course there are many approaches) and one for close miking. But for the ISA One to work well you have to use the DI, which sounds great to mix in, adding another channel (3 in total). But then it can't hurt to mike the open back of the cab as well, so 3 mics, 4 channels.
Does that make any sense, or do you think I'm nuts?
 
Nuts no. Crazy? Maybe a little...

Time for a bit of info? Definitely yes.

Sorry, session starting now. Someone else will continue.....
 
Guitarski said:
Two at least. One for a bass trap (of course there are many approaches) and one for close miking. But for the ISA One to work well you have to use the DI, which sounds great to mix in, adding another channel (3 in total). But then it can't hurt to mike the open back of the cab as well, so 3 mics, 4 channels.
Does that make any sense, or do you think I'm nuts?
Click to expand...

Well, whether I think you're nuts or not is irrelevant, because nuts is good as far as I'm concerned. :D

But I'm scared to ask how many mics you'd use on a drum kit. :eek:
 
Thanks, man, but on the site that's all virtual guitar. I've got to become a real musician sooner or later.
I've got to get some shut-eye. Catch you later.
 
Guitarski said:
Thanks, man, but on the site that's all virtual guitar. I've got to become a real musician sooner or later.
I've got to get some shut-eye. Catch you later.
Click to expand...

Client late. Go friggen figure.....

You don't need multiple mics to get good tone. Just good tone to start with, a decent understanding of how to use your gear, a good mic or two, and the time to find the sweet spots. It don't come easy, if the first two suck. The rest finds a way to work itself out, with some perseverance. :)
 
Hey Jimmy,

Your studio is like mine. Good gear, bad curtains.

I was going for a certain sound, with a transformer based preamp and a mic with a flat eq, which sounds understated. Then I figured I wanted to add some tube warmth to that, and so the issue with the lack of inputs came up.

How do you feel about preamp modelling, like Liquid? On guitar amps I'm not a fan at all, on pedals it can work.
 
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