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Post by Chris St'Aubyn on Aug 3, 2018 16:57:45 GMT
Hey Ethan, I should a start with saying that recording is not my expertise when it comes to audio work. I'm not completely in the dark on it but it isn't my strongest area of knowledge. Reading your book, your section on preamps along with some of the things I've seen online and my own personal experiences have me curious about a few things. One, you talk about noise and levels. I own a Roland Super UA audio interface (specs here: www.roland.com/us/products/super_ua/specifications/) and an Electro-Voice RE20 microphone (specs here: recordinghacks.com/microphones/Electro-Voice/RE20). How does one determine/measure the noise of their preamp? Should I disconnect the mic from the XLR cable and leave the able hooked up the interface and measure that? How does one determine how much noise is coming from my room and not my preamp? I feel like my preamp may be under performing but I want to measure it. I want to know for sure. Another note, do you feel preamps with tubes perform better than tube plugins that are introduced after the recording? I ask because I see plugins such as Arturia's preamps (https://www.arturia.com/products/software-effects/preamps-bundle/1973-pre) and to me they don't make sense if the actual physical preamp has already recorded its flaws or pro's into the recording, unless the sole purpose is to introduce non-transparent harmonics for listening pleasure and not accuracy. What are your thoughts on this?
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Post by Ethan Winer on Aug 3, 2018 19:14:47 GMT
You can measure the noise of your preamps if you have a 150 ohm resistor and a decent voltmeter. The procedure is described in detail in my Audio Expert book. You didn't mention if you have the original version of my book or the newer second edition. In the original it's on pages 160 and 161, and in the 2nd edition it's on pages 166 and 167.
If the goal of a preamp is high quality with minimal coloration, tubes are generally inferior to solid state. Of course, there are very good tube preamps, and someone may sell a lousy solid state model. But I prefer to avoid tubes. Not only because they have lower fidelity, but they cost more and change sound over time, then eventually burn out. Who needs that?
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Post by Chris St'Aubyn on Sept 10, 2018 21:49:06 GMT
You can measure the noise of your preamps if you have a 150 ohm resistor and a decent voltmeter. The procedure is described in detail in my Audio Expert book. You didn't mention if you have the original version of my book or the newer second edition. In the original it's on pages 160 and 161, and in the 2nd edition it's on pages 166 and 167. If the goal of a preamp is high quality with minimal coloration, tubes are generally inferior to solid state. Of course, there are very good tube preamps, and someone may sell a lousy solid state model. But I prefer to avoid tubes. Not only because they have lower fidelity, but they cost more and change sound over time, then eventually burn out. Who needs that? Agreed. Thanks I have the originial. I'll look into this test. Thank you sir.
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Post by Allthingssound on Mar 12, 2019 0:05:49 GMT
I’ve been doing some searching around on preamps and whether a passive or solid state would perform better, but could find no definitive answer on which is better. Thus far, in my quest to finding an answer, it seems as though it depends.
In short runs (no longer than 3-4m from dac to preamp and preamp to amp). I’ve read passive work best.
On the other hand, in longer runs (5m+ from dac to pre and pre to amp) actives work best.
Some people argue tooth and nail that passives are the way to go no matter what length because now-a-days DACs are built with 2V+ output, while active (specifically solid state) actually provide better performance keeping the noise down when turning the volume knob up.
Any thoughts?
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Post by Hexspa on Mar 12, 2019 11:47:56 GMT
My court jester opinion is that you should weigh your budget, features, availability and look at what pros tend to use. By pros, I mean people who are actually out there doing things with the gear for a given application. I guess there are few different reasons you'd use a preamp but they seem to mostly boil down to either transparency or color. I consider that distinction a feature. Maybe another feature, say for film, is portability/durability/form factor/battery powered.
So, ya - price, features, availability and actually being used in the field. Those are top four inputs that I consider when making any gear purchase. No sense in trying to buy something I can't afford, or too cheap so there's no way it's reliable, with features I don't need or doesn't have what I want, that's only sold in Germany which no one uses so I probably can't get any support for it.
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