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I am planning to do a live recording. I was thinking to use the line output on the FOH mixer. But I was wondering, should I go directly to my converter or should I go through some of my preamps as well?.. I have 6 good preamps (API and Green river). Or will this degrade the sound? (I think the FOH mixer is a Allen&Heat 48chn)

I know I would be better to split the signals before they reach the FOH mixer. But I dont have that option..

How would you do it?

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Cucco Wed, 12/12/2007 - 06:58

Depends on how you do the split.

Y cable - yes.
Patchbay normalled - yes
Isolated (transformer) - no

However, in none of these cases would I worry since the output impedance of any of these pres is <_edit_> LOW enough to not worry about a cut. Split 3 or 4 ways...maybe. But then that would just be insane, wouldn't it?

Me personally - I would go for the easy route seeing as how there's not a chance on earth anyone would ever be able to tell the difference in a final recorded project between an A&H Pre and an API when recording off of FOH. (Perhaps if the performer were Peter Gabriel or Sting...maybe.)

Boswell Wed, 12/12/2007 - 09:00

Cucco wrote: Depends on how you do the split.

Y cable - yes.
Patchbay normalled - yes
Isolated (transformer) - no

However, in none of these cases would I worry since the output impedance of any of these pres is high enough to not worry about a cut. Split 3 or 4 ways...maybe. But then that would just be insane, wouldn't it?

Me personally - I would go for the easy route seeing as how there's not a chance on earth anyone would ever be able to tell the difference in a final recorded project between an A&H Pre and an API when recording off of FOH. (Perhaps if the performer were Peter Gabriel or Sting...maybe.)

Just curious, why those two?

With my suggested scheme, the A&H pre-amps would not be in the recording circuit of the first 6 channels, and so Twood could choose a sonic flavour for each channel according to the sound source and the type of mic used. Having said that, the A&H desks I have used (GL2800s) have all have clean pre-amps with good headroom, so the case for using boutique pre-amps is a lot lower than it would have been with, say, a Peavey or a Phonic mixer.

I think you meant to say "the output impedance of any of these pres is low enough..."

By the way, it's a myth that transformer splits do not impose loads on the source. The actual load will be reflected back through the transformer as the square of the turns ratio, so 1:1:1 split transformers will act in loading terms as though the two loads were in parallel and the transformer not there.

Cucco Wed, 12/12/2007 - 09:47

Boswell wrote: [quote=Cucco]Depends on how you do the split.

Y cable - yes.
Patchbay normalled - yes
Isolated (transformer) - no

However, in none of these cases would I worry since the output impedance of any of these pres is high enough to not worry about a cut. Split 3 or 4 ways...maybe. But then that would just be insane, wouldn't it?

Me personally - I would go for the easy route seeing as how there's not a chance on earth anyone would ever be able to tell the difference in a final recorded project between an A&H Pre and an API when recording off of FOH. (Perhaps if the performer were Peter Gabriel or Sting...maybe.)

Just curious, why those two?
Why which two?
Peter Gabriel and Sting?
A&H and API
or Y Cable and patchbay

Boswell wrote:
I think you meant to say "the output impedance of any of these pres is low enough..."

Yes - that's exactly what I meant - thank you. I'll edit my previous - thanks.

Boswell wrote:

By the way, it's a myth that transformer splits do not impose loads on the source. The actual load will be reflected back through the transformer as the square of the turns ratio, so 1:1:1 split transformers will act in loading terms as though the two loads were in parallel and the transformer not there.

I did not know that - thanks. Now I do.