preamps and compressors?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aquanaut
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Aquanaut

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hi, i'm not to educated on preamps, and i thought i might get some help here. when recording drums....what should you use compressors and preamps on? i know you should use preamps on the condensors, but is that it? do you have to use preamps to get the best sound?

thanks>>>michael
 
First I'll tell you what a preamp is/what itz used for

Well..... a Mic PreAmp takes the signal that the mic generates(which is very faint) and amplifies it to a descent level where U can work with it.

So, without a micpreamp the mics signal won't be strong enough to show up. Basically, you will have to use a mic preamp for every mic U will ever use.

As far as condensors go, U will also need a mic preamp for them and "phantom power" which supplies 48 volts to your condensor mic, which condensor mics require work. Although, many mic preamps come with phantom power built in.

and as far as compressors go........ thats a whole different story

Sabith
 
As far as compression goes, modern recording practice has engineers compressing and gating everything which is tight-miked. As for specific compression ratio's, it come's down to a matter of taste. Most modern albums are compressed pretty heavily on a track by track basis, and then the final mix is usually compressed somewhat as well.

On the other hand, you might find this distasteful if recording, for example, and orchestra, or any music with a really big dynamic range (really quiet *AND* really loud passages).

Pink Floyd's older stuff is an example of a band that didn't do the type of heavy compression that is usually done nowadays.
 
well, i already have preamps on my mixer (Mackie 1402VLZ Pro). but i was talking about external preamps. tube ones. are they essential for a superior quality recording? because i don't want to get new ones if i don't have to.

thanks>>>michael
 
Essential? No, but you'd probably prefer the sound of a tube pre to that of a solidstate pre - loads of people, myself included, do.

You can get a single channel tube pre for about $100 (ART Tube MP - cheap and good but a tad noisy), and price and quality goes up from there. Alternately, you can buy a channel strip (a box containing a preamp, EQ and a compressor usually - sometimes other effects also) for each channel you'll be recording. Way more expensive, but loads of control and often good quality.
 
The consenseless of opinion is that the mike PREs on your Mackie are VERY good, and easily comparable to PREs that cost 10X as much. I have the same thing, and they are much clearer than the Tube MP (which I also owned). Don't worry about preamps unless you are prepared to spend abou $1K per channel for something significantly better. You can probably improve things more by getting a good compressor, or new mikes.

Rick
 
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