using a preamp, Pre A/D or dare I say Post A/D?

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thedude400

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What would the difference in sound quality be to using a preamp before A/D conversion as opposed to running an already recored digital track out of your computer , thru the pre, and back in to the computer. Obviously the D/A summing that takes place while processing the already recorded signal would add some noise. But is it very damaging?

I was thinking the other day, why for example buy 4 Great River Pre's to record a drum set when you can buy 1, run the tracks into the computer , then individually D/A sum each track thru the pre then back into the computer. I knowthats alot of summing, fiddling with the signal, and time consuming but it seems possible.

I'm guessing this is probably just crazy talk thats not worth the damage and trouble but just a thought.
 
thedude400 said:
What would the difference in sound quality be to using a preamp before A/D conversion as opposed to running an already recored digital track out of your computer , thru the pre, and back in to the computer. Obviously the D/A summing that takes place while processing the already recorded signal would add some noise. But is it very damaging?
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Unless I'm missing something there's no summing at that point.
I was thinking the other day, why for example buy 4 Great River Pre's to record a drum set when you can buy 1, run the tracks into the computer , then individually D/A sum each track thru the pre then back into the computer. I knowthats alot of summing, fiddling with the signal, and time consuming but it seems possible.

I'm guessing this is probably just crazy talk thats not worth the damage and trouble but just a thought.
Click to expand...
The general purpose of a pre-amp is to bring a mic level signal up to line level.
So, if you have 4 drum mics that need to be brough up to line level, you need 4 preamp channels. I'm not sure of how you think you're going to get them into the computer without going through a pre.

Now, if you were thinking of using some other pres to record and then run the tracks through the GR, well, I dunno, I've never tried that. I don't know how that would compare to first gen preamplification through the GR.
 
The usual goal of the mic pre is to amplify the signal coming from the microphone while doing as little damage to it as possible. So running your signal back through a mic pre after you've already recorded it would generally be expected to degrade the signal (however slightly), not to improve it.

If you are selecting a mic pre based on its "color" (basically using it as EQ), then that may be a different story. But you'll still be better off using it at the beginning of the chain rather than trying to insert it at mix time.
 
If you plug a mic directly into an A/D converter, you will have a signal level of maybe -30dBu, which might be about -45dBFS after conversion, which means your 24 bit converter with a noise floor of -110dBFS is now effectively an 11 bit converter.

That would be the best case scenario.
 
I knew it couldn't be that easy and cheap to get high end sound while multiple miking. ;) Just a crazy idea.
 
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