Every mic in the world needs a preamp. Its function is to get the mic signal up to a level that the rest of the gear can work with.

Preamp always needed?

Hey there,

I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but I do not really agree with Jon's post on this topic... With a decent soundcard, especially one that has a +4Db option, there are mics that will give you a good hot signal and do not need input gain... Take the Audix D4 for example. This is a pretty loud dynamic mic that is quite useful for drums, bass and I suspect, horns. If you are HD recording and you have a good program you can "cheat" the input level from the mixer section while recording.

Another to bear in mind an outboard mixer has mic pres and if your digital mixer can deliver the goods, spending that extra money becomes optional especially if your sound card comes with a phantom power option. I would say that if you are limiting yourself to dynamic mics, this is not a step to take lightly.

Good luck!

:wink:

stereomaus, no feathers were ruffled. You're absolutely correct that Phantom is utilising mic pres now via his mixer. In essence, any '"trim" function on a channel in Sonar is also functioning as a preamp. He doesn't need an outboard pre necessarily, but ya gotta have considerable gain at your input stage.