Placing Mic Pres AFTER the Mixer in chain

[Lotus 7]

Originally Posted by thetuningroom

...We've acquired some decent gear, but I wanted to know what peoples thought was about placing the mic pres after the mixer,...

Normally, this would be considered a big "no-no" because most mic pres would simply be overdriven and sound really crappy if you did that unless you inserted an attenuator between the mixer output and the mic pre. However, the Vintech VA 573 has a line input that's apparently routed through the input transformer, so there is no technical reason not to use it that way. It can handle the line level output from the mixer and add it's "character" depending on how hard you drive it.

The Tascam 246 will obviously have the largest effect on the total sound. If you really like that retro '80's cassette sound, fine, but you might want to consider going directly into the Fireface.

The only concern would be running the whole mix through [the VA 573] and adding that sound "character" to the whole band (could be boring). It might be more appropriate on the guitar and bass only, but it's strictly a matter of personal taste and artistic judgement. Since your Randall is an old "PA" mixer, I don't know if it has any AUX sends and returns (don't think so), so it might not be possible to patch the VA 573 in that way. If it sounds good to you and the band agrees that it's the sound you like, then do it.

[skillz335]

Thanks for the knowledge bomb guys, I have some things to look up.

[thetuningroom]

Thanks Lotus, Yeah the mixer doesn't have an aux in/out...but I see what you're saying about the mic pre. I was kinda thinking it might work if I turn up the mic pre and start at 0 on all levels on the mixer and slowly turn them up to mix.

But as far as the Tascam 246, I really want to at least try it out to see how it sounds with our music. I've heard fantastic recordings on the 388 and the 246 isn't that far off. I'll probably try both.

[Lotus 7]

Originally Posted by thetuningroom

I was kinda thinking it might work if I turn up the mic pre and start at 0 on all levels on the mixer and slowly turn them up to mix....

Running it that way might work gain staging wise, but even at low signal output on your mixer you will still have the mixer's "noise floor" to deal with which isn't going to be low on that mixer.

The VA 573 line-input probably uses a built-in pad that runs everything through the whole pre so should still give the pre "sound". Running it directly to the mic input will give more input transformer saturation, but risks driving the input stages into hard clipping which is more "crash" (like a 10-car pile-up) than crunch and usually doesn't sound good to most people.

If you do try it that way, you may want to be careful setting your monitor levels. Playing music which contains hard clipping at high levels can be pretty hard on your tweeters, not to mention your ears!

Re: The 246: I guess it's an "acquired taste", maybe like anchovies, or warm beer.
Whatever works for YOU!