pre amp for K&K

[dadio917]

I use my guitars with a Tascam audio interface for recording and berhinger mixer for live playing. They mostly have K&K pickups. Would a preamp make much difference in sound?
thanks

[Trevor B.]

L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic D.I. is my pre-amp of choice. It works wonders in both live and recording environments.


Here's a link to the User's Manual: https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...user-guide.pdf

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by dadio917

I use my guitars with a Tascam audio interface for recording and berhinger mixer for live playing. They mostly have K&K pickups. Would a preamp make much difference in sound?
thanks

For recording, I doubt it in most cases. Your Tascam interface is already a preamp - tho you might want to check that it has a high impedance input. The main thing most preamps might give you is some EQ, but you can do that after you record and hear better what you're doing.

An exception is the ToneDexter, which has the potential to improve the pickup sound thru modeling in a way that other preamps don't.

In general, even a $10 mic would sound better than the best pickup for most recording situations, tho. Have you tried a mic?

[fitness1]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

In general, even a $10 mic would sound better than the best pickup for most recording situations, tho. Have you tried a mic?

100% agree - on a budget, these would be a great "started" package:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...BI%3A514&smp=Y

A little on the bright side, but easily tamed I gigged with these only (not plugged in) in a large, relatively noisy restaurant for a while and always got praise for the guitar sound. They do wonderfully when set up properly to record.

[dadio917]

trouble I've found with mics is they pick up voices and other stuff. Pickups and directional voice mics do a better job of isolating so I can post processing.

Not really on a budget but don't necessarily want to through away $. This is all just for fun!

Am planning on switching to zoomtrack L-12 once holiday sales kick in. This will replace both audio interface and mixer I currently use. I believe that has two high impedance inputs.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by dadio917

trouble I've found with mics is they pick up voices and other stuff. Pickups and directional voice mics do a better job of isolating so I can post processing.

Recording with quality results inherently requires a fairly quiet environment, which can mean waiting till things are quiet, family's in bed, traffic has died down, etc. That's the the name of the game in home recording. Otherwise, it's a tradeoff, you certainly can record with a pickup, and it will produce a sound. Unlikely that you'll be happy with the result, tho there are options to make things marginally better, with post processing. I've done some articles in Acoustic Guitar on this over the years, and I posted a series of examples using a K&K on sound cloud a while back:

https://soundcloud.com/doug-young/se...-a-pickup-demo

There are 15 progressive examples in this playlist, so you'd have to go to soundcloud to step thru them all. Some of them leverage an interrnal mic, which is another way to add some realism to a pickup recording without picking up too much external noise.

if avoiding noise is impossible, ToneDexter is probably the best silver bullet you can find. I did a demo using it to produce a stereo recording, as discussed on this thread:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=472496

Still, even with noise, a mic will always beat a pickup. If the recording is just for fun, who cares about some extra noise? (Learning to edit around noise is also a essential home recording skill)

[Trevor B.]

I've seen ads for this preamp but never heard or, more importantly, tried one. I can see the advantage it would bring to a live recording with a combo or ensemble but for most other recording situations I agree that a decent mic is a better option. That said, I just ran across a video demo highlighting the ToneDexter's "learning/training" capability featuring......well, you can see who it is!



BTW - a very incisive demo, Mr. Young