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Hey guys! Can anyone help me out with preamps?


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preamp vst lol

If I understand it correctly, you need the preamp (or whatever) to get a clean and loud enough signal. A "preamp vst" would certainly get it loud enough but it won't get it any cleaner. And before you ask: no, a de-noise vst can't get it all without screwing with the sound you want to keep.

Someone more knowledgeful can elaborate on this, and correct me if I'm wrong.

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I have a Tapco mixer with two preamps on it and it was $60 and some change on ebay. Very nice.

here it is in its natural habitat

I also got a nice interface from another guy here on OCR, a E-Mu 1212m for... well shit, I forget how much I paid for it. But you can get audio interfaces like an audiophile 2496 or Emu 0404 for less than $100, or an external one for a bit more [don't know much about those].

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There's really nothing critically wrong with USB interfaces. They're pretty on par with firewire for the most part, and as the owner of both a firewire and USB interface, both with 8 inputs I don't really have any problems with either. PCI is fine too, and like OC said, they're much easier to put in than you think. If you can put a DVD into a DVD player, you can install a PCI card.

If you do go with a USB interface, I like Harmony's suggestion about the Fast Track Pro. While I really love M-Audio stuff, I don't much care for the Mobile Pre. It doesn't even have a master output control knob, which is just plain silly.

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I own the M-Audio Profire 2626 which uses their Octane preamp technology, and I think it sounds really really great. They have a lesser version (the 410) which is about half the cost ($399).

Anything less than that, and you may as well just get a USB interface IMO. Lots of people here have the Presonus Firebox ($299), but I have had countless troubles with several of the Presonus Firestudio Project (next step up) so I'd personally steer clear of them.

With a budge of $200, I'd just go for the Fast Track Pro or a PCI card.

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I've got a similar question... I'm about to get an M-Audio MobilePre USB because I'd like to be able to record in out-of-the-way places with a good microphone on my Windows laptop, and I was also hoping to get better playback out of it than through my laptop sound card, which sounds crappy. I don't have a FireWire port, and I don't want to spend too much. I've heard mostly good reviews of that model, but a few customer reviews said their recordings came out noisy. Anybody here have good/bad experiences with it?

big giant circles sez: "It doesn't even have a master output control knob, which is just plain silly. "

That's not a big deal for me... is there anything else wrong with it?

I'm planning to buy an SM58 to plug into it, to record my singing. Good choice?

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what specifically are you planning on recording with it? What DAW are you planning on using?

If people simply say that their recordings "come out noisy" that could be a whole slew of different factors that arent necessarily related to the interface.

If you're merely planning on using an SM58 to record, there's not much point in getting an interface with phantom power unless you plan on buying a condenser mic later on.

Also, don't get the SM58. Get the Audix OM2. Go to any Guitar Center or other music store that might have both and ask to test them both out side by side. You'll hear the difference.

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I'm hoping to record myself singing... I have a normal male voice with good range, and I'm hoping to record in an empty stairwell at my school that has great acoustics.

Recording software will be whatever the manufacturer packages with the USB interface, or Audacity or the Windows recorder or whatever else I can get my hands on. I'm a good programmer and a cheap bastard so I'm hoping to keep as much of the music-making process inside ChucK, SuperCollider, C or Matlab as possible... I do have access to Max/MSP and Logic Pro at a lab near here, as well as an AKG C1000S, but it's inconvenient. I'm assuming the raw stream of numbers that is sucked out of the USB cable is independent of the software.

Like I said, my sound card stinks, so I was hoping to get the USB interface for both the mic and my head phones, and at the moment I do have a condenser mic (AKG C1000S) on short-term loan so phantom power would be needed for that.

I'll check out the Audix OM2, it looks like a lot of people agree with you.

EDIT: The MobilePre comes with Ableton Live Lite... cool...

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