Question about gain staging and applying more gain with plugins.

[roderick]

So I've got a Neumann U87 and a Pearlman TM-1, trying to record acoustic guitar in stereo. The Pearlman has hiss (as do all the other tube mics i've tried) if I turn the gain up too far so I have to record it at a relatively low level to get a clean signal. The Neumann does not have the hiss and can handle more gain.

Is it ok to record both mics at a low level and add gain with plugins later?
I'm just confused as to how to approach this, thank you!

[MikeFFG]

Originally Posted by roderick

So I've got a Neumann U87 and a Pearlman TM-1, trying to record acoustic guitar in stereo. The Pearlman has hiss (as do all the other tube mics i've tried) if I turn the gain up too far so I have to record it at a relatively low level to get a clean signal. The Neumann does not have the hiss and can handle more gain.

Is it ok to record both mics at a low level and add gain with plugins later?
I'm just confused as to how to approach this, thank you!

The gain inside your DAW will still raise the level of the hiss. Could your preamp be causing your hiss? What pre are you using? The hiss shouldn't be that bad from a tube mic as to make you alter the way you record it. That might mean something is wrong. Or you have a noisy pre.

But either place you add gain will raise the level of the hiss (assuming its the mic and not the pre) along with the rest of the signal.

[roderick]

There's no hiss unless i turn the mic pre up past a certain level. Tried on both API 512c and Avedis MA5. Tried 3 different tube mics and they all have the same hiss.

[dasnub]

Originally Posted by roderick

So I've got a Neumann U87 and a Pearlman TM-1, trying to record acoustic guitar in stereo. The Pearlman has hiss (as do all the other tube mics i've tried) if I turn the gain up too far so I have to record it at a relatively low level to get a clean signal. The Neumann does not have the hiss and can handle more gain.

Is it ok to record both mics at a low level and add gain with plugins later?
I'm just confused as to how to approach this, thank you!

What you need to do in your DAW chain is this:

1st plugin: A gate to eliminate the hiss
2nd plugin: A gain plugin

The beauty of 24 bit recording is the ability to turn signals way up inside the DAW without any loss in quality. You just need to eliminate the hiss before you turn it up.