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Line ins before mic preamp on some mixers

I noticed that many mixers such as the Behringer hard wire their line inputs (without even a switch) in parallel with the mic input to the mic preamps. Yes, they do have a drop resistor but that's all. My concern is that the signal is being dropped and then amplified back up - thus adding another stage and more noise. No switch also means both a mic and a line source can be both "on" at the same time. I was thinking of adding a small switch and routing the line input to just after the mic preamp. Here I am just looking for reactions and suggestions.

Do I need a preamp?

I have an old Yamaha 3210 monitor mixer. It has low z 1/4" inputs, and hi z XLR.
From a post here, asking about the mixer, I learned the mixer can handle low/high z input, has preamps, and was built to deal with the different signals.
Sooo... I was looking today at some 500 rack preamps. Would one benefit me? Would I still run the preamp signal through the mixer? Or does that defeat the purpose; by adding the coloration of the mixer amps?
Would I use the preamp signal to go directly to my computers interface?

Thanks
Brian

Weird preamp behavior

hello guys,

I have kind of a weird situation here. Let me explain.
We are working with that guy who developed a great machine that uses lasers and such to read sound out of different supports.
The technology is great and everything but there is one thing I don’t understand.
The guy came and plugged the audio outputs of his thing into a RME quadmic preamp. So I went “oh no, I have better preamps you can plug that into” and he says “actually no, this only works with that RMEpre”. Since I couldn’t understand why, I still plugged the audio output of his rack into our new grace preamp. All I got was a really distorted signal, not usable. Went to the RME. Perfectly fine. Tried with a PreSonus preamp, weird distortion again...
So he’s right. The audio outputs of his machine only work with that RME quadmic preamp. But I do not understand why! I am thinking some kind of impedance thing but still, I find it really weird.

Could it be that his audio outputs are not really proper line audio outputs and that for some reason, only the RME is, by luck, designed to be ok with his signals!
Anyway, if some tech guy has any input here, i would be glad to hear it.

Thank you and good day!

N.

Lucid R3-- transparent mic preamp with optional jfet based harmonic drive

Lucid R3-- transparent mic preamp with optional jfet based harmonic drive. As well it has a tuneable high pass(5hz to 1khz), tuneable low pass(20k to 500hz), polarity,phantom power and de-pop circuit.

The power supply is a regulated LC filtered linear supply with emi noise filtering, surge and transient protection(+-18vdc and 48v). The phantom power has its own transformer to avoid pulling down the main rails when using older mics. The power supply noise is less than 1mv peak to peak.

The pre has both Jenson input and output transformers. This thing is truly an amazing unit. if I do say so myself

Attached files

Does the quality of the audio interface matter if you have an external preamp?

Hello, I’m an aspiring audio engineer and I am looking to build a home studio for Rap/HipHop. I have a few questions I couldn’t really find anywhere online, the first one being that does the audio interface matter if I’m purchasing the preamp. I am aware that there are preamps built into the audio interface, but i want to achieve a cleaner and better sound by buying the pieces separately. So I’m curious if I purchase a preamp separately, does it even matter what preamp I purchase? What is the benefit of having a better interface with a separate preamp other than translating vocals into line format before it hits my DAW. I want to spend more money on a better preamp if that is the case. Thank You so much!

Preamp and A/D converter ideas

hello,

I have a question for you guys.
For our archive digitizing works, we are currently using a couple of Neve 1073DPD.
We will be needing 4 new channels, which would mean 2 other 1073 for around 5000$.
So I was wondering if you guys would have any ideas of some other gear that could do the trick for a little less money.
It could be an interface (all included), some other preamp+converter (standalone) or even preamps and converters (separately).
I mean, I love the 1073, but it start to add up in terms of money and I was wondering if there would not be a cheaper alternative.

Thanks for your time.

N.

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