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Philip Banks · Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 11:09 am Post subject: Mixer out of the chain

I have a small mixer which is used as a patch from the mic preamp to the computer audio card. Is there any reason why I shouldn't remove the mixer from the chain? I was wondering if powering up the preamp or turning the 48v mic power would give the audio card a kick and turn it into a nuclear bomb or something.

Lance Blair · M&M Joined: 03 Jun 2007 Posts: 2281 Location: Atlanta

As long as your soundcard isn't made by Ukranium Krazeez Labs it should be fine.

You also might find that you sound even more lovely in bypassing the preamps in your mixer...or you could go "Insert" in on the mixer (which you may well be doing but I'm just giving others a hint).
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KaseyKruz · Club 300 Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 336 Location: Michigan

There will probably be a slight reduction in the db levels once you remove the mixer from the chain. As far as popping the sound card by turning on the amp and phantom power, without knowing the models of each and how the power cycles on and off, it is hard to say exactly, but my experience has been that the best way is to always turn on preamps and amps first, then everything else in the chain sequence. If you were to just leave everything powered on all the time as most radio engineers recommend, you would not need to worry about blowing up any equipment. Supposedly leaving equipment turned on prolongs the life as the power cycling tends to hurt the circuitry over the long term.
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