Preamp into Preamp = Bad idea?

  • Thread starter Thread starter darkecho
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darkecho

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Ok, Theoretical Situation here,

Say I have a Firepod with 8 preamped ins, those preamps are pretty low quality compared to say, oh I dunno, an amazing 100,000,000$ preamp.

Now, this is all the equiptment I have right? my interface has built in pres that are nothing compared to my expensive preamp, but what will happen to the sound if I have a mic go into my amazing$$$ preamp and then into the firepod to record into my DAW?

I will essentially be double-preamping the signal, or does it not work like that?

It seems like you would not want to color the signal coming out of your expensive pre with the firepods pres, am I correct?

say this is true, is there a way to bypass the firepods preamps, so that you can just use the firepod as a pure preampless interface? or would you need to just have a soundcard that does not have built in pres?

so basically, what happens if you run an already preamped *pristine* signal through a dumpy preamp?
 
darkecho said:
so basically, what happens if you run an already preamped *pristine* signal through a dumpy preamp?
Click to expand...

You get a dumpy version of a pristine signal.

Try to find a way to bypass the shitty pres and use the good ones. Don't run the same signal through 2 pres.
 
First of all, you just take the line out of your expensive preamp, and plug it into the firepod's line inputs, you bypass the firepod pre's

But as an aside, recently I did a whole album, sort of as an experiment.

I normally will use all this: http://members.cox.net/pipelineaudio/geartop.htm and more, but I wanted to try a whole album, just on the firepod

heres some roughs http://www.myspace.com/koama

If I have any complaint at all, its when doing EXTREMLY quiet sources ( an accoustic guitar miced with 2 414's about 6 feet away). Still it turned out fine
 
bad idea, but preamp into preamp into preamp is a really good idea. Even better, try preamp into lower intestine.
 
bewildered said:
bad idea, but preamp into preamp into preamp is a really good idea. Even better, try preamp into lower intestine.
Click to expand...

My, you are just full of wisdom these days. You say so much in so few words.
 
so an interface/mixer/anything that can have built in pres, will be bypassable if you use the 1/4 ins?

so the Firepods pres are all bypassable aslong as you dont use the XLR jacks?
 
darkecho said:
so the Firepods pres are all bypassable aslong as you dont use the XLR jacks?
Click to expand...

yes. pretty much all of the time your XLR jacks on interfaces are going to have preamps on them. However, that's not saying you can't plug line inputs into them too. A lot of times there will be a switch to change that input to line level instead.
What you need to do is read your manual. The manual or specs will tell you what each input takes. Some units have XLR connectors to accept both line and mic level signal....other units have XLR connectors only for microphones and 1/4" inputs for line level.

Now, even other units (especially the XLRs that also take line level) may still send your signal through it's preamps...but put a pad on your signal first so as not to over amplify what you're giving it. This way the preamp control acts more like a trim knob so that you can adjust the line level input a bit. Many people don't like sending nice dedicated preamp signals through a connector that accepts both line and mic for this vary reason. They feel it taints the quality of the sound because it's still touching the "crappy" preamps.
 
Another way to do it is knock down the trims on the preamp you want to avoid and use the trims on the better unit. In theory it's all a bad idea, but if the noise floor is lower than the other weak links in the chain, you won't be noticing it.
 
are tehre any good interfaces out there that have like 8or so unpreamped Line inputs?
 
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