VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:44 pm Post subject: inexpensive pre to run an REV20

I have a narrator joining us at PerfectVoices.net and she's got a fair amount of hiss in her chain. We think it's because she's running an REV20 into a Symetrix 528 into an Mbox 2 mini. When she takes the Symetrix out, it sounds fine, but the levels are too low because the mbox doesn't have enough juice to run the REV20.

She's looking to buy an inexpensive pre amp. Is there one that will sufficiently power an REV20 without the need for the Symetrix boost?
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

Gp · Guest

There are a number of inline amps that might help the cause. The one I am thinking of called the Cloudlifter by cloud microphones is a nice little piece, Very clean and enough gain to give a passive ribbon a much stronger signal on a lower db amp.
If you have a compressor there you can always run it through the compressor just for the make up gain...so you are not in engaging the compressor per se..just using it a little.

Deirdre · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:42 pm Post subject:

Does she have other things active in the 528?
Mine is damned quiet even with the gain cranked and the output up 75% —but I don't use the EQ on the RE20— just a bit of gating.
_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 10:47 pm Post subject:

She had everything bypassed except the preamp. It could be the Symetrix needs some time in the shop.

Then again it could be the mbox. She says she's not getting the hiss with just the mbox, but then she's not able to crank the gain high enough to get much sound so how would she know?

She's got a TLM102, so I'm going to have her test that one as well.
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

Mike Sommer · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2010 12:14 am Post subject:

The first thing not to worry about when feeding audio into a DAW is having a really "loud" singnal. So as long as it is "clean" audio (no hiss or distortion) you're fine. you can boost a clean signal in the digital domain without any increase of noise.

As far as the Symetrix 528 goes it only has (from what I can find about it) 50dB's of gain output from the pre-- as mentioned above you can cheat and boost the signal with the make-up gain from the compressor.

As for the hiss it could be a number of things:
The XLR connection to on the box might have a problem. With some preamps, if they don't detect an impedance load they will hiss.

Make sure the output of the Symetrix is goint into the "LINE" input, and not the XLR.

Overall a 50dB output from a preamp can be ok for a dynamic mic, if it is a low noise amp. But a dynamic mic really needs a preamp with 60dB's or more to properly operate.

My top pick for affordable preamps is the $300 Golden Age Pre.
_________________
The Blog:
http://voiceoveraudio.blogspot.com/

Acoustics are counter-intuitive. If one thing is certain about acoustics, it is that if anything seems obvious it is probably wrong.