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  #1  
Old 10-30-2009, 07:36 PM
pepperboy pepperboy is offline
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Default Preamp your Mic for recording?

With all the excellent tunes being shared by all the talented folks here, I'm wanting to your brains about recording an acoustic with mics. I know this is an endless topic, but my question has to do specifically with getting a strong level from a mic only recording.

I'm running a M-Audio Pulsar matched pair into an M-audio 2626. When I crank the gain on the particular input channel, before I get a nice strong level I start to get too much garbage noise. I'm wondering if some sort of preamp to boost the level before going into the interface may help...

Do you use a Preamp before running into your recording interface?
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Old 10-30-2009, 10:43 PM
sdelsolray sdelsolray is offline
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The mic preamps in the M-Audio unit provide 53dB of gain. That's enough for recording even quiet acoustic guitar passages. The noise specs of the unit are very good. If you are experiencing too much noise in the recorded tracks it is either (i) ambient noise (room, environment), (ii) your software settings are amiss or (iii) the M-Audio unit is defective.
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Old 10-31-2009, 06:23 AM
Herb Hunter Herb Hunter is offline
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Have you tried a different microphone to rule out a faulty microphone?
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Old 11-08-2009, 12:50 AM
sehnsucht77 sehnsucht77 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pepperboy View Post
With all the excellent tunes being shared by all the talented folks here, I'm wanting to your brains about recording an acoustic with mics. I know this is an endless topic, but my question has to do specifically with getting a strong level from a mic only recording.

I'm running a M-Audio Pulsar matched pair into an M-audio 2626. When I crank the gain on the particular input channel, before I get a nice strong level I start to get too much garbage noise. I'm wondering if some sort of preamp to boost the level before going into the interface may help...

Do you use a Preamp before running into your recording interface?
yes, i do use a preamp but i also use a condenser mic versus a dynamic mic which is more sensitive. you do not mention the type of mic you are using. i run my recordings through a number of preamps which include an avalon 737, grace m102, UA-2-610 and Daking M-One.
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  #5  
Old 11-08-2009, 01:58 AM
paul84 paul84 is offline
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I have been getting significant background noise recording on my laptop - I tried all sorts of things to resolve the problem and then last night completely accidentally I resolved he problem - It goes away when I run the laptop off batteries and only occurs when I run it plugged into the mains.
Just a thought -
Paul.
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  #6  
Old 11-08-2009, 12:05 PM
Fran Guidry Fran Guidry is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pepperboy View Post
With all the excellent tunes being shared by all the talented folks here, I'm wanting to your brains about recording an acoustic with mics. I know this is an endless topic, but my question has to do specifically with getting a strong level from a mic only recording.

I'm running a M-Audio Pulsar matched pair into an M-audio 2626. When I crank the gain on the particular input channel, before I get a nice strong level I start to get too much garbage noise. I'm wondering if some sort of preamp to boost the level before going into the interface may help...

Do you use a Preamp before running into your recording interface?
The "taper" of the gain pot on the 2626 makes it very difficult to adjust the gain when recording low volume sources like acoustic guitar. The last 1/8 of the pot turn makes a huge change in gain, so it's very very hard to get just the right amount of gain. And adding too much gain brings up the room noise substantially if you're using a high sensitivity mic.

I along with numerous other users have raised this issue on the M-Audio forum. At one time I was told that engineers were looking for a fix, but at some point the official line changed. The latest statement is that this configuration makes it easier to record loud sources like drums, so it's a feature, not a bug.

I used an external preamp, not because it gave better quality than the 2626 preamps, but because I could control the gain setting more easily.

Fran
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  #7  
Old 11-08-2009, 02:16 PM
FLDavid FLDavid is offline
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I run through a PreSonus Eureka (essentially a channel stip) about 95% of the time
I use it for tracking vocals (especially useful when using my ancient Digitech Vocalist Workstation), electric 12-strings, piano, mic'd & direct acoustics, and bass
My condenser is an AKG C2000B
About the only thing I do not use it for is tracking synth (although I guess I could)
I can hear a notable difference from the earlier (pre-Eureka) recordings
Plus, easier mixing
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