You’ll see the second kind labeled as “Instrument” or “Hi-Z,” with the second label being an abbreviation for “high impedance.” We’ll talk about impedance shortly. The main one is the XLR input that accepts the cable that runs from your microphone and the other is a TRS input that accepts the cable that runs from your electric instrument (keyboard, guitar, bass, etc.). We know what preamplifiers do in general, but how do we get them to do it? At the top level, flavors are just very similar and very subtle preferences for people to argue about (us studio engineers have learned to hear every peculiarity!). If you’re out looking to buy the best mic preamp possible and encounter the conversation about coloration, don’t worry about it at all. The thing is, this is a very subtle feature that 99% of listeners won’t detect. The big boys that already have their transparent models are also providing colorful models. Manufacturers have mastered the art of creating transparent preamps (not that they all are willing to spend the money on the right electronic parts to do it). This is a harmonic distortion based on the signal itself at very low volumes and lower frequencies that provide a sense of “warmness” to the signal. What happens is a very pleasant distortion is applied to the signal. Pre’s that use transformers and vacuum tubes are designed to raise your signals volume while imparting a specific Color.Ĭoloration, Color, Flavor… these are all terms related to a warmth that is imparted to your signal as it passes through the tubes or transformers. Some newer solid state pre’s use transformers. Transparency is created through solid state electronics, but old preamplifiers used tube technology (just like cathode ray tube televisions did). That’s part of the job of a recording engineer. Starting with your acoustic treatment, then microphone, and then preamp, you can control your desirable signal while maintaining a minimal amount of noise through gain staging. You get a very high signal-to-noise ratio. The noise floor turns up with the desired signal. You can run the signal into an instrument input or into a soundcard and just crank up the input gain as high as you can and get a useable signal to record into your digital audio workstation.īut you’re cranking up the volume of all the noise too. This is the problem with NOT using a preamp. Pre’s that boost your signal cleanly to perfectly reproduce the sound the microphone recorded are called Transparent. You want to boost the signal without raising the noise floor and other non-problems that get picked up along the way like electrical hum. The first and foremost goal of a preamp is to raise the volume of a mic-level signal and to do this cleanly. Two Types of Preamplifiers: Sonic Qualities This is the basic purpose of preamplifiers. So the challenge is to raise a mic-level or instrument-level signal up to a line-level signal. This is the type of signal coming out of electric guitars and keyboards for instance. A line-level signal is at a much higher voltage, which is to say a louder volume. Now, all of our recording gear from compressors, equalizers, analog-to-digital converters, the works… it all expects a line-level signal. The situation is the same with instrument-level signals. This moves a magnet in a wire coil and this generates an electrical signal.īut this signal is very weak, so weak that it gets it’s own name… mic-level. What happens is that acoustic waves come vibrating through the air and jiggle a diaphragm back and forth. We were saying, microphones record their signals in at mic-level. The preamp exists due to a characteristic of all microphones… They record a mic-level signal. The question is why? What do they do? Can they do their job poorly? Can they do their job really darn good? What happens if you skip one? You’ve got the questions and I’ve got the answers… Some soundcards even have them.īut they’re so invisible most of the time that when a newbie starts recording on his or her own, they don’t even realize they exist and end up not using one at all! They’re built into even a cheap audio interface. They’re built into USB mics (for the love of all that is good and holy, don’t use one of these). The funny part about all of this is that preamps are hidden everywhere. I was more eager to record my art than to learn the technical aspects of how to do it properly. The reason I’m so adamant about this is that I recorded my first 30 songs or so without one because I had no clue what I was doing. It is 100% possible to record without one and you have the same percentage of a chance to get horrible results. It goes like this: If you’re recording with a microphone then you need to use a preamplifier, no questions asked.
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