Pre Amp

[thevo711]

My set up now is the following:

Dell Dimension - Windows XP
Audiophile 2496
Samson MDR6 Mixer (6 channel)
crappy Gemini monitors
Cakewalk XL Home Studio

Audio Buddy (I own but have not used)

My questions deal with the recording of the vocals. The guitar sounds fantastic but for some reason I can not get the proper levels for the vocals. Either the vocals come out too low or I am overloading the meter and it comes out somewhat distorted. I keep reading about pre amps and compressors.

1) Will a preamp and compressor help me achieve the proper vocal levels?

2) The mixer that I have, as many other mixers I have seen do, says that it has preamps built in, is this the same type of preamps as a stand alone preamp ?

3) Audio Buddy - should I be running the mics into this first then the mixer or is that redundant ?

4) For a man on a budget what is recommended to solve the vocal problem ?

All help is welcome.

 

[c7sus]

Run the output of the Audio Buddy direct to your soundcard.

Compression may help, as would good vocal technique.

The preamps in the Sampson are nothing to write home about as far as preamps go.

Best bang-for-the-buck compressor is the RNC, at about $175 for two channels of clean, musical compression.

www.mercenaryaudio.com

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo 7/11: [That's where I get my AM coffee!]

C7 has got it right about the RNC. I got mine for 175 and NO SHIPPING charges.

I've got compression on my 2816 but it's kind of dinky and takes time to punch in/out the tracks.

I have used the RNC to remaster some 488 tape tracks I did way back and had great results. Of course, any hiss comes through better and clearer with the digital SIAB = but, I can usually get away with very little noticeable hiss.

For vox, I like to run my mic into a Grace 101 and then into the RNC = great results. Nice up front vocal and no clipping and very clean.

You can also run keys, drums, or whatever through the RNC before recording. There is lots of room to experiment. For the money, the RNC was a great addition to my humble studio.

Green Hornet

 

[noisedude]

they're right the audio buddy is a better pre than using two channels on your mixer. use that for your main recording and the mixer for monitoring. when you're recording more than 2channels at once i'm sure you'll come up with a solution.