preamp for keys necessary?

  • Thread starter Thread starter guttapercha
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guttapercha

guttapercha

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Hi,

I've been using the line level outs of my Roland VK8 to go direct into my interface line-ins (yamaha i88x). The gain on the keyboard has to be up pretty high to get a good level in the DAW. Alternatively, when I go through a pre (DMP3), there's a ton of gain to spare.

What's the norm for using on keys - pre or no pre?

Thanks,

JD
 
good quality stereo direct box would probably be best, unless you wanted to drive it hot through a preamp for distortion (which can work well for hammond b-3, clav, some analog synth sounds and stuff), in which case a pre with a direct input would be cool.
 
Yo Ko:

I almost always use a preamp for my Motif--the patches on the synth are very good but a little boost seems to give a nice Phaat sound. I can also run from the mic pre to my RNC if I'm doing blasting stuff. Lots of choices but I think a good mic pre will be an asset in most instances.

Green Hornet :cool: :D
 
if your board has inputs that are high impedence.... no it's not necessary.... will it sound better???? unless you screw the pooch in choosing one YEAH in almost all cases..... i run my kurz through a dbx 386 tube pre even has 98k/24bit convertors..... shhweeeeeeet...
 
It is not necessary to use a preamp with keyboards. The output on keys is line level, which is what the inputs on your soundcard are looking for.

As far as the output level on your keyboards, that should be set to maximum. Set and forget.

If the output on your keyboard is set to less than maximum your gain staging is somewhat messed up from the start. In other words, you have to boost the volume later down the audio chain, meaning your signal to noise ratio is not as good as it should be.

What the others are saying regarding DI's and preamps also applies, but is more for tone shaping than out of necessity. The bottom line is that you don't *need* a preamp between your keyboard outputs and the soundcard inputs.
 
It would be a waste of money to buy a nice preamp just for a keyboard. It can improve the sound, but not by enough to warrant spending a couple grand. If you have a couple of nice pres laying around though, you might as well hook it up. I ran my keys through all my different pres and there was subtle differences in each one, but it's not something I would pay for.
 
SonicAlbert said:
As far as the output level on your keyboards, that should be set to maximum. Set and forget.
Click to expand...
Wow, I guess there is a first for everything. I usually agree with you and have learned a lot from your posts, but I can't agree with this one.

You should set the level on the keyboard where you get the best S/N ratio, don't clip/distort the signal. For example on my Juno-106 setting the gain to max distorts things, but my soundcard shows about -8dbFS.

My Kurzweil K2600XS, if I set the level to Max, I get hiss (so does everyone with this board). The volume slider on the K2600 sets the output level of the Mix outputs, which is the sum of the 8 individual analog outs, so it is a bit more noisy than the individual outs. I find that having the slider about 3/4 of its way up gives me the best level with almost no noise. Plus there are so many places to optimise the gain on this beast that I tend to do it internally in the digital domain. By the time I am done, the output is so hot that it overpowers my soundcard anyway.

So, I guess my answer to the origianl question would be "it depends". I definitely don't see a need to use a preamp with the Kurzweil as its outputs are extremely hot to begin with. However, I could use one with the Juno.
 
SonicAlbert said:
As far as the output level on your keyboards, that should be set to maximum. Set and forget.

If the output on your keyboard is set to less than maximum your gain staging is somewhat messed up from the start. In other words, you have to boost the volume later down the audio chain, meaning your signal to noise ratio is not as good as it should be.

.
Click to expand...

damn i hate working in generalities... but generally speaking this is just wrong... you still want to leave yourself a little head room on the keyboard output... especially if the input is not optimized for the board... try it at 3/4 and i'll bet it works out ok for you... if you use the full tilt set and forget method your just gonna have to pad it down at the preamp level anyhow...
 
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