BR-8 preamps
Musix -
I use the BR-8 as well. Preamps are a real hot topic with the BR-8 crowd, since the built-in preamps are completely unacceptable. As a side note, you may want to check out the BR8 dedicated message board over at yahoo - it's a great community specifically for BR-8, and if you search "preamps", you'll get a lot of advice. There's also a lot of general preamp advice on the these msg boards-- do a search of "preamp" and "micpre".
http://groups.yahoo.com/BR-8
Also, this probably isn't the right forum for this-- you may want to repost in the Roland forum or the rack equipment forum.
Anyway, a non-techical explanation of a preamp, is that it takes a low-level signal, such as the signal that comes out of your mic, and boosts it up to "line-level", such as the signal that comes out of your guitar. As a homerecordist, you use a preamp primarily while tracking, not while mixing or mastering. I'm not a professional, so I can't speak to other applications of preamps.
Your first clue that the BR-8 preamps are not very good is that even if you max out the BR-8's gain on the mic channel and then scream into the mic, you still can't get a high enough volume on your vocals.
The preamp also does color the sound, and different preamps will add a different character-- some add no color at all, and are designed that way. Studios use different preamps depending on what kind of effect they're trying to get. Tube preamps are very expensive, but add a warm analog feel to the mix (just like a tube guitar amp). Solid state preamps are less expensive and tend to pass through the signal with less color.
Watch out for the low end tube preamps-- some people swear by them, and others say that it's a marketing gimmick-- adding a tube as an effect on top of a solid state circuit design, rather than an actual tube circuit design.
It's also said that these low-end preamps are noisy. The two I have in mind in this category are
the Presonus BlueTube and the Art preamp that's $100 (can't remember the name). But you will be able to find people on these boards who will tell you that these are great pieces of equipment for home recording. I haven't tried them.
Pete
