Should I get a preamp for my home recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter ctoptrophobe
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ctoptrophobe

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Hello,

I'm not trying to get fancy, but I was looking for advice to see if I should get a pre-amp for now. I currently have Pro-Tools 8 and using an SM57 with an Mbox MINI. I know that's considered a preamp, but as of now I'm only staring at a gain knob. I was thinking of getting a pre-amp with some type of compression/EQ combo. Again this is in my home and I'm not recording anything intense, but I figured I should at least get it for the practice versus relying on plugins. So my questions are:

1) As of now just stick to plugs or should I tell the MINI to screw off and get a real preamp?
2) Which preamp(s) would be a good investment for home use?
 
What you're talking about is actually a channel strip a preamp is basically just that, a gain knob, some have other knobs for output or headphones but a preamp will not have any processors in it. What monitors are you using? Room treatment? I'd start with treating room and decent monitors before a boutique preamp for an sm57. Room treatment and monitors will have a much greater impact on your mixes at this level in your game.
 
Right now just the basic M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 set. As for treatment I'm doing the newbie/amateur with some foam and blankets in a closet. I'm thinking about an acoustic shield. As of now I'm in a duplex and can't really do too much to the rooms since I'll be moving to a house soon. Like I said though, I was curious more for practice. I would like to learn enough to work in studios vs in a room/garage. I'm guessing though, with lack of treatment I won't be able to hear a difference for practice anyways?
 
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