Whoopysnorp
New member
I'm in the process of improving what I have as far as studio gear. I don't have all of these things yet, but ultimately I plan to buy an RME Fireface, a Sytek MPX-4Aii preamp unit, and then eventually one more of each. I will either be recording into the Fireface or into a 1/2" analog 8 track machine that I already have. The Sytek preamps have no output level control--all you get is a gain control, mute button, phase reverse, and phantom power control. I may be operating under an erroneous theory here, but I've always been under the impression that one should run one's preamps so they are close to clipping but they don't actually clip in order to get the best S/N ratio. If I'm going to do that, I want to be able to use my mixer (an Alesis Studio 24) to attenuate the preamp signal before it goes into the tape machine, as it doesn't have any input trim control. I don't believe the line ins on the Fireface do either. What I'm worried about is taking the nice clean signal from my good high-quality Sytek pre and jamming it through the cheap-ass pre on the Alesis board (the line ins on the board's channels do pass through the preamp, I believe). I'm considering putting the preamp signal into the mixer at the point of the channel insert instead, as that would bring it in post-trim and pre-EQ. However, that's not a balanced input. So my dilemma is this: do I give up balanced connections from my pres into my recording device for the sake of keeping the channel pres on the Alesis out of the chain, or do I simply use the TRS line ins on the board and not worry about whatever changes that might impart to the sound of the outboard pre?
