Theoretical Situation here

  • Thread starter Thread starter darkecho
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darkecho

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Ok, just a theoretical situation, please let me know if this is possible..

say I have one super expensive preamp with only one channel, but I want to record a whole drum kit with say 8 mics total. I dont have the ability to amp each mic with its own individual preamp (just got one) and I do not want to lose the ability to edit anything down the road by combining all 8 signals into one to be amped by my single mic pre.

SO, here is the idea. Would it be possible to take say an 8 channel PC audio interface that doesnt have built in preamps, and record all of those mic signals to the DAW un-amplified. THEN take each individual recorded track that is unamplified and re-amp it through your single mic pre.

that way you can record a drum kit with a bunch of mics, and be able to have all of those tracks amped by your single mic preamp, BUT still have them all seperate and editable.

just curious if you can do this, it would be a money saver for someone who doesnt have the dough to spend on 8 mic pres but need to record an 8 mic drum track...

thanks!!! :D
 
in more words can you explain why? haha

does the problem lie in recording unamplified signals? or in routing the unamplified signals through the mic pre afterwards?

i would think that this would work similar to reamping an unamplified guitar track, only you replace the guitar with a microphone and the guitar amp with a mic pre...
 
I don't see how you'd record a microphone without some sort of pre in front of. I guess technically, you could route the output of say your snare channel, out to your expensive mic pre, and back to another track....but I don't think its going to do anything.

6
 
well, you are recording the mic unamped, so you get the raw sound of the mic unamplified, then you play that unamped signal through the mic amp as if it were just being played. so its just like reamping a guitar but with mics instead... is that not posible?
 
Nope, the preamp is necessary to get the mic signal up to line level. The converters in the 8 channel interface expect to see a line level signal. If you tried to send them a mic level signal you would record either nothing, or maybe just tickle the first bit or two. It simply won't work.
 
ummm, that would be the sound of silence (or almost silence!), or is it the sound of one hand clapping? ;)

Seriously, you generally need to boost a mic signal to record anything usable.

darkecho said:
well, you are recording the mic unamped, so you get the raw sound of the mic unamplified,
Click to expand...
 
Robert D said:
Nope, the preamp is necessary to get the mic signal up to line level. The converters in the 8 channel interface expect to see a line level signal. If you tried to send them a mic level signal you would record either nothing, or maybe just tickle the first bit or two. It simply won't work.
Click to expand...

excellent, this is precisely the answer I needed. It is unfortunate that you cannot reamp mic recordings (then one could literally use a single preamp for everything...) but thats ok.

SO i assume Guitar re-amping is completely different because first of all, the signal is boosted to line level for the computer to record it. secondly, you are not sending the signal out to BOOST it with a higher quality amp, as much as you are just wanting to change the tone from all digital to a mic-ed amp...

so a mic level can never be recorded accurately with out being amplified first, hence defeating the purpose of re-amping it through a high quality preamp since its already been amplified before it even got to the computer...


little by little I am building my understanding of the recording processes :) thanks to all of you
 
Darkecho,

It appears that you have the idea that a preamp is like an effects box or guitar amp with a very specific tone. Although every preamp does impart it's own tone on a signal, in general, the role of a mic preamp is to boost the signal to a useable level. The bucks you spent on that nice preamp is probably for it's ability to get it to line level very transparently.

Your idea of recording multiple tracks with multiple mics will still require as many mic preamps as mics used simultaneously. If those preamps are crappy and don't capture the sound very transparently, then you're kindof stuck with crappy sound - you can't add transparency later.

However, once you have those tracks recorded you certainly could reamp them through your expensive preamp (or other outboard processor) if you wanted to add it's tone to the track, but your original capture of the instrument is only as good as the preamp used for tracking.

Your idea does work nicely as an economical solution for other expensive outboard processors (compressor, reverb, etc.). So a budget approach might be to buy a set of decent preamps to do your tracking, and use reamping to allow you to use an expensive processor on multiple tracks.
 
Yes, I got it now, thanks a lot! I understand, the preamps purpose isnt to color the sound as much as it is to actually make the sound... so you have to have a pre to bring up the level to loud enough for the audio interface to "hear" it and record it.

yeah, I guess re-amping for pres wont work, but effects, definately!
 
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