Sent Pre Through Line instead of Mic = WOW!

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by work2do

Need to forget all that extra smart stuff and use the equipment as it was designed to be used. Line out to Line In.

Always a good rule of thumb.


FWIW (if only to give an idea of the perspective from non-Neve gear) here are impedance specs for one of the super affordable Mackie small format VLZ boards (specifically the SR24-4):

mic pre input: 1.5 ohm
all other inputs: > 10K ohm
all outputs: 120 ohm

Here's a block diagram of the Mackie inputs:

[KEITHLINX]

Recording, mixer 101

Inserts -Mic pres, compressors, eqs, gates..
Aux send -Reverbs, delays and fx....
Line In -Keyboards, samplers, synths...
Mic in - Mics


This is how it should be and how i do it but hey.... no rules right!!!! whatever sound your lookin for

[Blast9]

You forgot Instrument DI -

1 Meg Ohm or higher is recommended for guitars so as not to load down the pickups, the goal being to get the widest possible frequency response, and keep the resonant frequency as high as possible -

Some DIs have 5 meg ohms some have 10 meg ohms (like the MW-1)

[Nickbenjones]

I hope this thread was a joke.

[dogma]

I know its a rudimentary question but do you guys need to degrade and belittle this guy/girl. Give your knowledge with best intentions or, i don't know, don't post in the thread - just a thought

[Macky]

Originally Posted by dogma

I know its a rudimentary question but do you guys need to degrade and belittle this guy/girl. Give your knowledge with best intentions or, i don't know, don't post in the thread - just a thought

its the modern malady "5 year Badge Envy"

[ears2thesky]

But which is the best input with respect to impedance for dubstep?

[Ephi82]

Originally Posted by noah330

I have all external pres for my DM-3200.

I have a UA-610 (the rack one). When I moved about 4 and a half years ago I hooked up all my stuff and for some reason I ran the 610 into the XLR in of my mixer.

I forgot about this until last week and ordered the stuff to make a new cable.

Used it in a session for the first time tonight - man what a difference!

If you're running your pres into your xlrs then change them to the line.

Noah,

Don't let all these "brilliant" recording engineers in the "Low End" section of GearSlutz in any way discourage or try to make you feel bad. Too many of them get their rocks off demonstrating that they feel superior. Pathetic

These kind of forums, especially one designated as "Low End" should be for folks working with less expensive equipment. (and this those with short experience in many cases) As pointed out, many of the low end boards and analog interfaces do not have separate inputs or gain stages for line/instrument and mic inputs.

You have learned something by using your equipment, congratulations! Keep it up and keep making music!

BY the way, John Lennon, god forbid, plugged his Casino direct into the REDD board at Abbey Road, cranked the gain well beyond normal practice and created an ungodly distorted sound to tape for a big hit called Revolution. Good thing he didn't consult with the GearSlutz forum, huh?

[ido1957]

Most low end boards I've seen do not have a switchable XLR mic/line input. I use an XLR to 1/4" from my LA610 to my mixer's line in. :D

[machoboy]

I got my preamp 4 months ago and i didnt notice any improvement of sound. I had it sitting on my bed with my mic plugged directly into my motherboard and the preamp plugged into my SNES.

Today I tried plugging the mic into my preamp and the preamp itself into my soundcard and all I can say is "WOW!" now I can sing bad to the bone with delay so i don't have to do the b-b-b-bb-b-b-bad part myself

[fastlanestoner]

All pres are line level...

[cqd]

Originally Posted by machoboy

I got my preamp 4 months ago and i didnt notice any improvement of sound. I had it sitting on my bed with my mic plugged directly into my motherboard and the preamp plugged into my SNES.

Today I tried plugging the mic into my preamp and the preamp itself into my soundcard and all I can say is "WOW!" now I can sing bad to the bone with delay so i don't have to do the b-b-b-bb-b-b-bad part myself

Now that was funny..

[S21]

Originally Posted by southsounder

Now I'm confused.

Don't most XLR mic inputs run at 0db gain when turned all the way down

Although everyone tells you that it is a variable gain knob, it isn't.

There will be a fixed gain amplifier. Just to make sure nobody missed that I will say it again - the amplifier will have a fixed (non variable) gain. The knob is for a variable attenuator.

Whenever you run through the mic amplifier you will suffer the impairments of the amplifier. If you have a 30dB amplifier with the knob set to 0dB then this really just means the variable attenuator is set to -30dB.

[gt_jumper]

Originally Posted by Chris.

most mixers (at least not cheap ones) will have a PROPER line input that BYPASSES the gain stage of the mic pre.


the whole point is to not run your line level signal into something not looking for a line level signal, and to avoid the extra circuitry/unnecessary gain stage. Nothing really about headroom, it kinda just depends if you want your signal to sound good or not

I have the mackie 1640i and it doent bypass the gain stage, i just leave it at 0 for outboard pres

[Wattie1096]

FWIW, I've been recording for over 20 years and just checked my patch bay... yep, two of my pre's were following a signal path into a pair of XLR's (pre amp) ins on an interface.

I think my guitar player was screwing around with stuff last week

It's easy to forget about the basics sometimes, even when you know better.

[rog951]

OP: glad you got things sorted out. Mistakes like this can be some of the best learning tools - you will likely never again get your interconnects screwy because you'll pay close attention from now on, knowing the result was worthwhile. Don't worry what the know-it-alls say - they've all made silly mistakes in their past I'm sure, and none of them have ever touched a real, naked woman.

[noah330]

I'm surprised by the hate here. I had forgotten about this thread actually.

What had happened IIRC was that I had moved into a new house and had to get my setup up and running quickly to handle some project to meet deadlines.

In the haste of wiring everything, getting everything configured, etc... I made a mistake and ran an XLR cable from the pre to a mic input on my mixer.

It didn't sound all that bad to be honest, when I realized the mistake I corrected it and it sounded a lot better - so I made the post figuring at some point someone as rushed/didn't know any better would maybe avoid the mistake.

Was it a dumb mistake? Absolutely! Still glad I posted in the hopes that it helps someone at some point

[vizcities]

Originally Posted by rog951

Mistakes like this can be some of the best learning tools - you will likely never again get your interconnects screwy because you'll pay close attention from now on, knowing the result was worthwhile.

+1 (in that this advice applies to EVERYTHING EVER - writing, car problems, soccer, relationships, you name it)

[noah330]

Exactly.

If I had a nickel for every time I had made a dumb mistake that I wouldn't have made had I not been rushing/not paying attention/too tired I would have a lot of nickels.

Such is life!

[Blast9]

Anyone skimming this thread should slow down and read the good technical info in here

Many people know this stuff... many people don't -

Needless to say, a great deal of "low end" gear has specific design approaches to achieve the best possible flexibility, and therefore designs do differ... Standards, anyone?

[psykostx]

Ah the joys of mismatched impedance ... this is the main reason why you need a variety of preamps to go with your variety of mics. Everything sounds great until you AB it, unless it's REALLY REALLY low-fi. This is how the manufacturing industry gets away with selling so much junk. You don't know the difference, until you've heard the difference. When A - B || B - A = 0, then and only then there is no difference.