How does a preamp work

M

Metallica5

New member
Hey, the mic channels on my behringer mixer are making all types of cracking noises no matter how low or high the trim and volume is on each. Would getting mic preamps resolve this problem? How do you hook up a preamp to a mixer?
thanks alot
 
Yo 5 Xs Metal Person:

Sounds to me like you have a serious board problem. A mic preamp will boost the signal of a mic and a good pre amp will give you the ability to get a nice round, large, clear signal.

All of which doesn't mean squat if your board has the snap, crackles and POPS>

Green Hornet

:D :p :p :p
 
huuummm what could be causing the cracking? It started as a problem we had on toms and floor toms. Now its starting to do it to vocals as well. I really have no idea what it could be. Not every hit cracks, but almost all tom hits crack alot.
thanks
 
our volume and trim on sonar, as well as the trim and all the volume controls on the mixer, are hardly set above 1! Theres no way this is a volume issue. Theres got to be something that I'm doing wrong in order for this to not be working correctly.
 
The it sounds like a defective board... which is surprising, considering it's a Behringer!!! :p :p

You'll likely need to get it serviced.
 
Just to clairify, are you running the mics straight into the mixer? I mean are you picking up gain somewhere else??
Have you tried different mics, I mean has anything else changed since you have been hearing the sounds??
 
Cables? Check the cable! A bad connection will cause crackling. I would also unplug the cable to make sure its not the preamp itself but maybe its the trip potentiometer.

SoMm
 
I've tried numerous mics. I just plug the mics directly intot he board. It could be the mic cables, because it seems that its not always the same channel making cracking. But would a faulty cable cause cracking when a drum is hit?
thanks
 
Its unlikely all your cable could be bad? I have a xlr connector with no wiring for checking these kind things. Take one cable and remove the connector by cutting all the wire off. If you have a solder gun, remove it that way. Plug in the empty connector and move the pot ccw and cw and listen for crackling.
Does it do it on all of the pre's? Could be your mic is crapping out because of SPL being too high for that mic? Can you check that? How about a complete list of mic's that your using? Get a cable tester by the way.
Can you borrow another mixer of the same model?

SoMm
 
It doesn't happen on every pre. It depends how I chose to mic the drums. This is what happens...
Channel 1- kick drum
Channel 2- snare drum
Channel 3- Toms
Channel 4- Floor Toms

It doesnt matter where I plug them into, the floor toms and toms always seemed to crack. But now the other day, the other instruments started doing it, so im wondering if I have some bad cables, because I use the same cables for gigging too.
I'm using a Audix drum mic kit, i think its made up of 2 D10, and 1 D12. We also use a shure Sm-58 and a rode anniversary model condensor. All of which are experiencing cracking now. I don't know anyone who has the same model mixer, but we could try to find someone.
 
Go get 1 new cable, decent quality one at least. It sounds like a cable problem if all the mics are doing it now. I have a guitar cable laying around that I used to gig with, the soldering is fine, but the cable got ran over by a dolly and crackled ever since. Take the single new cable and test it one mic and one pre at a time. If its fine then get more like it.

SoMm
 
great idea! thanks alot. I have off from school on friday due to teacher strikes where i live. I'll go and get a new cable then and ill post here and let you know what happens on either friday night or saturday morning.
 
I really doubt that the cables all went bad all together. Is it happening only while you are jamming or will it crack when you play only one thing? If it is midjam I would say it sounds like you are overloading the stereo buss. Remember you don't need to have any one thing too loud but all the instruments together wil add up to overload the stereo buss which is where all the signals have to squeeze through to get to the speakers. Speaking of speakers have you checked on headphones to eliminate the speakers/amp/speaker cables?
 
It's at differnt points in songs. It does it on just about everything. I've looked at the headphones and speakers and gone through that already. How would I be able to check and see if the stereo buss is the problem?
 
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