pre-amp -vs- guitar amp

[Felldownstairs]

This may be a cataclysmically stupid question, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. I'm too poor to purchase a preamp at the moment (damn student loans) and I'm not getting enough gain on the mic going into the computer. So I was wondering if this would maybe work (or if it's going to really mess things up). What if I were to plug my mic into my guitar amp and then run the line out from the amp to the computer. Might that work, or am I so confused that I should be beaten?

Thanks for helping a newb.

 

[lala]

Well as far as plugging the vocal mic into your guitar amp, I don't see any harm in it. Heck, I couldn't buy an amp so I plug my guitar up to a karaoke machine and play that way and it works just fine for home stuff. So I don't see any reason, why it couldn't work the other way around. As far as plugging the amp into your computer, well, I don't know too much about that one. I would say just go ahead and try it, but i wouldn't want for it to screw up anything important so maybe you should hold off for someone else's reply. Hope this helps in some way.

~lauren

 

[KaraokeKancer]

An Art Tube MP isn't more than like $70, that will give you some cheap gain.

 

[Farview]

You can do it, it won't sound very good and it will be prone to distortion (depending on the amp/mic)

 

[jonnyc]

I really think if you did that it would sound like total ass, do what the other guy said and get a cheapo preamp and just use it for gain.

 

[guitarboi89]

im doing it right now... have for a while
err its not great.. theres a lot fo noise but hey its free

 

[Fishybob]

If your just looking for cheap pre's just get a small mixer - even the behringer Euro desks are FAR better than nothing!!! You'll be looking at about £35 and you'll have 2 pre's and a few more routing options.


I uded one for quite a while and although the difference between them and the pro pre's is massive they still can produce good sound.

 

[Felldownstairs]

Hey thanks to everyone who dropped some suggestions my way. I wasn't aware that one could find a workable preamp or mixer for that cheap. After spending a stupid amount of money on a decent mic, I had thought that the preamp would be comparable.

Appreciate the suggestions.

 

[Fishybob]

Once you get to grips with all issues (room acoustics, mic placement etc) a decent pre amp can be as important (some say more so) than a decent mic.

For example. A good mic through a cheap pre amp will sound cheap - a decent mic through a good preamp will sound pretty good. Don't get me wrong, the pre's on the behringer mixers are hardly ideal quality but you can get a very usable sound from them.

I'd say use this as a stepping stone. It's dirt cheap, has an ok sound and once your confident in taking the next step start saving for a £200+ pre - the difference is staggering.


http://www.behringer.com/UB802/index.cfm?lang=ENG
I used one of these while learning the process at Uni and got some pretty great tracks through it.


http://www.turnkey.co.uk/tkweb/stockdetail.jsp?sku=SPL-GOLDMIC&context=WEB
This is the beauty I'm saving for now!!!

- just to put things in perspective!