Preamp vs. Fader

[xstatic]

Wow, what an amazingly ignorant reply. Read what I said. You make it sound like all faders have to be at unity or the world is going to end. What if I want to drive me preamp really hard? Sure if you are using a Mackie the differences in noise may be incredible. There is ABSOLLUTELY NOTHING wrong with not having a fader at unity. It is suggested for SOME of the reasons that you imply. It is a visual refernce that is helpful. Why do you think that outboard preamps don't have markings for unity output? If you have good faders and good preamps, than you get alot more freedom to do what you want with your gain structure. I certainly agree that in general it is good practice, but wanted to point out to any one out there who dosn't know better that it isn't wrong to not have a fader at unity. On a lot of cheaper consoles especially there is a certain point in the preamp where the gain pot adds a larger amount of noise than normal with just the tiniest movement. If you stay just below that threshold and bump the fader up a bit it can actually give the same output with LESS noise.

Really the only bullshit here is anyone who comes on here and proudly states to everyone that there is one way, and only one way of doing things, and that his/her way is that way and anyone who does it differently is full of shit. If this were the case, there would be a neat little book on recording that might take up 100 pages and no need for forums and engineers etc....

 

[acorec]

x-static I call bullshit on you. The fader is left here because it is the unity gain position. The manufactuer is telling you the console runs most effeciently at this point to keep the explanation simple. To move the fader off unity gain is to introduce more noise. That's it. Plain and simple. It's not about what you feel like doing, it's pure and simple science mr. bullshit man. Of course if you are not getting enough gain from your preamp you can boost the fader if you wish but this is an exception. I suppose if you want to introduce hiss for creative purposes (whatever, gawd!) that's ok. During mixing the faders can be moved into all kinds of hott positions. When you see someone properly tracking all the faders will be lined up in a neat little row. Gawd! acorec: All mics have self-noise. Some more than others. All electronic devices have self-noise. It is inherent. Gawd!

Gawd! Ribbon mics have *virtually non-existant*self-noise because they usually have no onboard active devices Gawd! Any self-noise that *is* generated in the ribbon element has nothing to do with the ribbon and all to do with any active amplifiers that happen to be in the circuit (in certain ribbon mics), which in a good design is *far*lower than a condensor mic Gawd!This guy's problem is a cheap pre-amp with low gain Gawd!