Yep with a good preamp you will certaintly get a better sound. Well, different atleast.

killersoundz is right; with a good preamp you'll get a different sound. Different doesn't always mean "better" but variety does give you more options when recording.

What you already have is very useable however, and you'll find that mic placement has a lot to do with the sound you get from the mixer to your recorder or DAW. Of course, if you're mixing on a computer the use of plugins can dramatically change and re-shape the sounds you've recorded too.

The EQ on the soundcraft compact boards is very useable also for shaping your sound before it gets to your recorder. And an outboard compressor between your mixer and your recorder can make a huge difference in the sound you get.

When you've learned everything you can learn by using your compact 10 and you get "tired" of the sound, you'll know it's time to buy a stand-alone mic pre.

yeah, make the best out of what you have first!!, experiment as much around as possible, i personally would suggest to spend rather "first" money on additional mic(s) and see how you can improve recordings with different / and / or multi-mic recordings, before digging into nice pres, but that's just my opinion.
(i believe mics and their differencies / placement are also more important for the recording learning curve then a couple of nice pres, for a beginner)

intomuzik wrote:
I wonder if i ever need a separate mic preamp since the Soundcraft Compact 10 mixer has built-in Class-A preamp.

All "Class A" means is the amps in the circuit are on full blast, all the time. A pre being "Class A" does not guarantee that it is "A Class act". Those pres in the Soundcraft are at best, marginally ok. The Power supply is more than likely only powerful enough to handle the tasks it is intended for, with little or no headroom built in. That's just the nature of products that are designed to a price point.

Don't take my word for it ... take a look at this goodie.

http://www.johnhardyco.com/pdf/OutboardMicPreamps.pdf

It all depends on what you want to do but I think you should at least try recording with a basic decent pre amp like "The Brick" from Groove Tubes. A step up from that is the Sebatrons and JLM TMP8s and Neves, GRMP2NV, APIs etc.

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I spell checked. Happy?

preamps.

Interesting article.

Does anyone have samples comparing mic preamps? I haven't had the luxary of trying many different types to appreciate the differences.

thannnnx