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videoracer · 7th January 2009

Well, I've run a few test, and I'm hearing some more noise than I expected, but I'm not sure if it's coming from the preamps, the mics, or the Behringer BCA2000 I'm using as an A/D.

One thing's for sure, the Cascade Fathead hums. I shut all my gear and UPS down and used only a laptop, the pre's and the BCA2000 with the mics and that Fathead still hums. Any Fathead users reading this? Do you get hum like this? This is a stock Fathead.

I adjusted the BCA2000 input down to -11dB and bumped up the Rane and the Pre-73 outputs to minimize noise. It helped, but there's still noise coming in from somewhere. Have a listen here:

Cad E-300 (original)_GA Pre-73 Lo Z
http://stashbox.org/352745/e373lonm.wav

Fathead_GA Pre-73 Lo Z
http://stashbox.org/352755/fh73lonm.wav

Cad E-300 (original)_Rane DMS-22 (Z fixed @ 1k)
http://stashbox.org/352766/e300rane.wav

Fathead_Rane DMS-22
http://stashbox.org/352771/fhnmrane.wav

Quick specs on the Rane can be found here if you're curious:
http://www.rane.com/pdf/old/dms22dat.pdf

Hopefully you folks will find my voice will be tolerable.

So I'm curious, aside from the Fathead's hum, do any of you get similar noise levels on your individual tracks? I've purposely isolated these tracks and left some "silence" at the end so you can study the noise floor. This is regardless of what preamp you may use. In these examples it's two different pre's from two schools of design, but while they certainly sound different from each other, there's not much difference in noise levels.

Some of the noise you'll hear in the background is the laptop's fan, but it's easy to differentiate from electrical noise. Occasionally noise from outside my apartment may leak in from people passing through the halls, but this may not be in any of these particular takes. At one point (although I'm not sure if it's in any of these particular takes either) the building's boiler was rumbling through (and that sucker if 5 flights down!). So there are noise variables, but they are fairly readily identifiable.

While I regularly run noise reduction on my mic'd tracks, I always try to get the cleanest signal I can up front. These are raw tracks. Typically I record a little hotter than this (except for the Fathead up to now that I have the Pre-73), run NR and mix down.

The Rane used no EQ. The Fathead pushed the Rane to it's limits. The Rane's dials aren't calibrated, but both input and output were at 9 for the Fathead. The Pre-73 was at -55 input with the output on the 8th dot (why couldn't they have a calibrated output?). Because the Rane was almost maxed, I didn't run hotter signals. I kept the CAD's recorded energy levels similarly for comparison purposes.

So I welcome your comments and opinions on these tracks. No jokes about my voice.

More than anything else, I really dig the Pre-73's gain. No regrets getting this sucker. If you're looking for a high gain preamp, consider this one.

7th January 2009	#89
videoracer Gear addict Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 326	Well, I've run a few test, and I'm hearing some more noise than I expected, but I'm not sure if it's coming from the preamps, the mics, or the Behringer BCA2000 I'm using as an A/D. One thing's for sure, the Cascade Fathead hums. I shut all my gear and UPS down and used only a laptop, the pre's and the BCA2000 with the mics and that Fathead still hums. Any Fathead users reading this? Do you get hum like this? This is a stock Fathead. I adjusted the BCA2000 input down to -11dB and bumped up the Rane and the Pre-73 outputs to minimize noise. It helped, but there's still noise coming in from somewhere. Have a listen here: Cad E-300 (original)_GA Pre-73 Lo Z http://stashbox.org/352745/e373lonm.wav Fathead_GA Pre-73 Lo Z http://stashbox.org/352755/fh73lonm.wav Cad E-300 (original)_Rane DMS-22 (Z fixed @ 1k) http://stashbox.org/352766/e300rane.wav Fathead_Rane DMS-22 http://stashbox.org/352771/fhnmrane.wav Quick specs on the Rane can be found here if you're curious: http://www.rane.com/pdf/old/dms22dat.pdf Hopefully you folks will find my voice will be tolerable. So I'm curious, aside from the Fathead's hum, do any of you get similar noise levels on your individual tracks? I've purposely isolated these tracks and left some "silence" at the end so you can study the noise floor. This is regardless of what preamp you may use. In these examples it's two different pre's from two schools of design, but while they certainly sound different from each other, there's not much difference in noise levels. Some of the noise you'll hear in the background is the laptop's fan, but it's easy to differentiate from electrical noise. Occasionally noise from outside my apartment may leak in from people passing through the halls, but this may not be in any of these particular takes. At one point (although I'm not sure if it's in any of these particular takes either) the building's boiler was rumbling through (and that sucker if 5 flights down!). So there are noise variables, but they are fairly readily identifiable. While I regularly run noise reduction on my mic'd tracks, I always try to get the cleanest signal I can up front. These are raw tracks. Typically I record a little hotter than this (except for the Fathead up to now that I have the Pre-73), run NR and mix down. The Rane used no EQ. The Fathead pushed the Rane to it's limits. The Rane's dials aren't calibrated, but both input and output were at 9 for the Fathead. The Pre-73 was at -55 input with the output on the 8th dot (why couldn't they have a calibrated output?). Because the Rane was almost maxed, I didn't run hotter signals. I kept the CAD's recorded energy levels similarly for comparison purposes. So I welcome your comments and opinions on these tracks. No jokes about my voice. More than anything else, I really dig the Pre-73's gain. No regrets getting this sucker. If you're looking for a high gain preamp, consider this one.