Vocal Chain; less equipment, better quality?

  • Thread starter Thread starter word_play
  • Start date Start date
W

word_play

New member
Hey guys,

I am a novice to say the least when it comes to recording. I am only recording vocals and will only every be recording vocals. My question is as stated in the title, is the less gear you have in your signal chain, the better?

Right now I have the current set up:

Audio Technica AT4047 > API A2D Dual 312 Mic Preamp > Mbox Mini 2 > Computer

I am thinking about adding an EQ strip/Compressor to the line but would that degrade the quality? Is it better to add EQ and such after the fact in pro tools?

Thanks a lot for taking the time guys.
 
Last edited:
You'll get a lot of yes and nos to this question but what it will boil down to is if you know what your doing then an out board processor during recording will be good.Then on the other hand you are stuck with it in the recording.

Post production in pro tools you can EQ and compress it up all you want and still at the end of the day if you don't like what you have you can go back to your raw recording.






:cool:
 
Do the digital edits first, then add gear later, if you "need" it for live performance, or just want to make your post flow a little quicker. If you record at a high enough sample rate, you can get away with some pretty serious edits.

Yes and No for sure.

Yes it's bad, each and every component is a potential point of failure. No it's not bad, as any failing unit can be swapped out cheaper. Yes it's bad, not many (if any) single multifunction units that contain all top end components. No it's not bad, as you save a few bucks, weight of the gear, weather proofing, number of used power sockets, and other things.

At the end of the day, how good is good enough...
 
Are you using a digital connection between the a2d and the mbox? If so, (and you don't hear any clicks or pops, indicating a clocking issue - not a subtle problem at all), then I'd say you have a higher quality vocal chain than most of us here. I know that wasn't your question, but my point is to say that I'm with the folks who are suggesting that you fully explore what you can do "in the box" (or "ITB") prior to investing in additional outboard components, since you presumably have a nice signal to start with.

Also echoing the previous posters, if (and really only if) you have a specific reason to add something outboard, like live performance, or you're done exploring ITB and you're sure that you can cut a significant amount of time/workflow or get a particular sound you're after by adding outboard, then go for it.
 
antichef said:
Are you using a digital connection between the a2d and the mbox? If so, (and you don't hear any clicks or pops, indicating a clocking issue - not a subtle problem at all), then I'd say you have a higher quality vocal chain than most of us here. I know that wasn't your question, but my point is to say that I'm with the folks who are suggesting that you fully explore what you can do "in the box" (or "ITB") prior to investing in additional outboard components, since you presumably have a nice signal to start with.

Also echoing the previous posters, if (and really only if) you have a specific reason to add something outboard, like live performance, or you're done exploring ITB and you're sure that you can cut a significant amount of time/workflow or get a particular sound you're after by adding outboard, then go for it.
Click to expand...

no, unfortunately it's not a digital signal as the mbox 2 mini doesn't have a S/PDIF input... maybe I should invest in a regular mbox..
 
The technical answer is yes, more equipment degrades the quality. Every time you send a signal through something, it gets changed a little. Added noise, tone changes, little bits of distortion, etc... all occur when you send your signal through a piece of equipment.

The better the equipment, the less 'damage' gets done, either because the circuits are cleaner or the 'degredation' they add sounds good.

Your question about the channel strip really boils down to whether or not you are willing to take the risk of screwing up on the way in. Sometimes you can un-EQ something, but there is no way to effectivley uncompress something that got compressed badly on the way in.
 
I belong to the school of thought that says "do as little as possible". This includes the signal path, and processing after tracking.

This short clip is a violin piece, recorded with an AT853 going straight into a firepod. No separate preamp, and no EQ or compression afterwards. The only effect is reverb.

http://www.box.net/shared/ov2fb3fv48
 
word_play said:
no, unfortunately it's not a digital signal as the mbox 2 mini doesn't have a S/PDIF input... maybe I should invest in a regular mbox..
Click to expand...
Given that G.A.S. is a serious illness that we all need to take seriously, I'll cautiously say that I'd be curious to know how much better the API conversion/associated signal path is than the mbox mini. Just realize that you *could* be getting into a situation where you have a word clock sync issue and you wind up having to use an external word clock (and *perhaps* only to find that the improvement over your old chain wasn't worth it) - not sure how likely that is. Hopefully you could directly successfully slave the mbox off the API without any trouble (or, keeping an open mind, maybe even slave the API to the mbox if it obviously works better that way). If you go that route, and then still decide to add additional outboard components as we've all been urging you not to do, you'd be restricted to running those components through the inserts on the A2D, but that may be fine, too.

I use API 3124+ units a lot and love the preamps, but I've never even seen an A2D, so I don't have much practical insight. I have to run an attenuator between the 3124s and my converter to keep from clipping the converter, but I'm sure API took care of that issue inside the A2D. I realize I'm drifting way OT, so I'll shut up now.
 
Which everyone has to a certain degree. I tend to offload the units I'm not using. But I tend to upgrade for additional functionality, not really prettier box type things. I prefer to do as little as possible as well, but sometimes you just can't. Whether that is to work around a software bug, or other hardware issues. Suffice to say that a fair amount of the improvements in my recordings have been how I handle the content digitally in post. Not that I ever wanted to do more than trim and normalize. But ultimately you have to in order to get there from here. With a result worth keeping.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top