How much of a preamp's tone is reduced when it's run a

The reson Korg didn't design these systems with inserts is because they wanted to present it as a complete system - just take it and run.

So intead of inserts they set it up with an rather extensive set of built in "plug-in's".

I'm not defending the design - just explaining it.

Anything you run through any piece of gear - even in by-pass mode - effects the sound.

So the answer to your question is "yes".

The real question is - with the 2 put together - can you come up with a sound that works for you?

Rod

 

Quite a few consoles in the "pro-sumer" range seem to have this design flaw - more than one Tascam board I've seen prints on is this way. When you "switch an input to line in", even though there is an actual switch, all it does is to switch an attenuator into the chain. The sound STILL goes through the preamp circuitry, which practice never ceases to amaze me. A switch is (usually) almost as good as a straight wire, and either one beats the sox off ANY active circuit as far as accuracy goes.

The minute you change a signal, technically you've distorted it. Sometimes that's a GOOD thing, at least as far as subjective sound is concerned, but it's still a fact - change = distortion. (We're talking REAL world here, not theoretically perfect circuits that can (theoretically) make a signal "bigger" without changing its THD, IMD, phase, or any other characteristic.)

I say this not to incite a riot, but just to make a point. Every time I've looked at schematics of lower cost mixers, I've wondered why that stupid line/mic switch couldn't have been used to hardwire bypass all the crap instead of just changing the gain.

So if you go shopping for a "better" unit, be sure and look at the circuit diagram before assuming that those "line in" switches are really what they claim, instead of just a "gain change" that puts your signal through just as many extra components as always... Steve

PS - if you find one that isn't this way, please share the info -

 

Jon,
Most mic pres will drive 2 line inputs without breaking a sweat, like one to the DAW and one to the monitor mixer. Many pro studios have areas of their patchbays dedicated to making splits or "mults".

By taking a 1/4" patchbay and configuring it as "non normaled" and running jumpers between the top row jacks (1 to 2, 3 to 4 etc) on the back side, you have a patch bay set up to do "mults". The top and bottom rows now form 4 paralled jacks, or a 1 into 3 "split".

Plug the out from the mic pre into the first jack, then one out from this to the DAW and a second out to the monitor system..