Help on signal level from mics - do I need more preamps?

[harveyrogers]

Please forgive this dumb question; I'm just getting started and I have new equipment that I don't understand very well.

I am recording at home with a Yamaha AW16G hard disk recorder system. I have several different mics (Sure Beta 58A, Rode NT1, AKG C900). When I plug them into the recorder I need to turn the MIC/LINE input knobs (the preamps?) almost all the way up to get a strong signal into the recorder. With the knob all the way to the right (highest setting) I can only make the input distort if I bellow.

The manual says I should record as hot a signal as I can without distorting, and I wonder if that means I should be getting additional preamps and running the mics through them before I connect to the recorder.

I have to buy more phantom power anyway, so I could get preamps at the same time for less money than buying separately.

Thanks in advance for any and all comments.

harv

 

[tdukex]

This unit has built in preamps. Do you also have the channel faders and the master volume fader turned up when recording? These should be turned up to unity, then increase the input/line gain until you get the desired recording level.

 

[Fuzzy Dice]

harveyrodgers,welcome to the forum.I'm setting up a home studio and just bought the aw16g.An AW16G users group forum is about to be set up.You can read about it here https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=66855&perpage=20&pagenumber=1 We hope you can give some feedback on how you like working with the 16G.Thanks in advance.

 

[Armistice]

Harvey

I have the AW4416 - the consensus in most of the forums I cruise around that specialise in the Yamaha family is that the preamps in these machines are OK, but they're not really big on gain (volume) - I had the same issue with my machine, and ended up buying a separate preamp.

Plus, you have to ask yourself about the quality of the preamps in these all in one machines - whether you need additional quality depends upon what you're trying to achieve and the environment you're using the machine in.

If you go this road, consider the number of channels you may require - I bought a single channel preamp, but realise now that a dual channel preamp would have been better.

Here's the URL of one of the AW4416 forums:

http://www.socialentropy.com/aw4416/

some AW16G users hang out there as well.

Hope that helps in some way.

David

 

[JesusFreak]

Hello Harvey and welcome to the forum,

I own a Korg D1600 all in one but I think that with most all in one's the pre's on them aren't that great. That just seems to be the general consensus. Anyway, I, like most people here, was on a pretty tight budget so when I got my machine, I bought two presonas blue tubes. Well, one of the channels on the blue tubes was bad so I took it back and ended up getting an audio buddy for vocals (after hearing so many good things about it here) and have been totally impressed by it. You wouldn't think it could do anything if you just look at it but it is actually a very good little mic-pre. And at about $99, you almost can't go wrong.

Bottom line, you probably would be alot happier with some type of external mic-pre.

Take care and God Bless!