Preamps, am I crazy or are they crazy?

The Lounge Other Gear
#22

Should someone run a signal through a preamp, Elektron Analog Heat, Empiracle Distressor, cheap mixer, and so on and so forth? So many options. They will all add some shade of color. Certain preamps add a flavor, and some of it may be subtle, but when running all tracks through these preamps, all of the subtlety adds up and gets a nice cohesive sound to it. Some would call it the sound of a console. Whether or not you want, or even need that for your music, is entirely up to you.

A while back I ran some synth bass through a DI into a Neve type clone. It sounded very nice, nicer than the dry signal. But again, it is up to you or not. So much great music has been made on nice consoles, and an even greater amount of music has been made without the need for nice consoles.

Be the artist and pick your color.

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#23

The preamps on the old Portastudios are pretty neat for adding grit or to get fuzzy tones for stuff like bass. Kind of a bonus if you want to experiment with tape.

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#24

i mean the DI box part is dumb butā€¦

if yā€™all think plugging the synth/drum machine/sampler into your interface is equal to plugging into the 1/4" DI in a neve, api or high end tube amp - you just dont know better or dont hear well enough to judge.

is it necessary - not at all. but its also not the same.

those carnhill transformers in my BAE1073 make EVERYTHING larger.

that being said if I wasnt recording vocals and using mics i wouldnt have them lol

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#25

This totally reminds men of ā€œguitarist in a rock bandā€ mentality, that some of my friends had when in uni.
Still wondering is a DIbox needed if you can just drop the output of you synth to match, and then you kinda want the preamp to get overdriven anyway to get the nice distortionsā€¦ So whats the point? Lowend?

#26

Sometimes Iā€™ll run some drums through the UAD Neve 1073 or UAD Neve 1084 which have line level settings for some subtle saturation/glue.

I donā€™t think itā€™s enough of an effect to buy expensive analog preamp for that purpose. I could easily get away with something like Fabfilter Saturn for the same effect.

Nothing wrong with it if it sounds good, but itā€™s no silver bullet.

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#27

Are they perhaps

Or am I

crazy, crazy

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#28

Yes

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#29
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#30

Now that is a silver bullet!

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#31

Just to be clear on my earlier post: I donā€™t think you are crazy if you record a synth through a preamp, I wanted to make the point that youā€™re not crazy or missing out if you donā€™t. Except for sound character changes thereā€™s no benefit in running it through a preamp (talking line level instruments here, micing is of course a different story). If you have some nice preamps sitting around, experimenting with them is great of course.

But the thing I donā€™t agree with is the notion that (expensive) preamps factually make your synths sound better than recording straight into a convertor. They might make things sound better to you because you like the character of the preamp, but they donā€™t magically make the signal better in some way. Things might also sound better to you if you record it through a $30 behringer pedal or put a free plugin on the signal. Itā€™s a matter of taste, not of quality.

Going straight into a convertor gets you the original sound character of the instrument itself, which in that sense is the best way to record it. Any signal processing is changing your sound, whether that sound better or worse is again, a matter of taste.

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#32

And just to be clear on my earlier post, youā€™re all idiots.

Edit:

And just to be clear to the flaggers, this is a joke.

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#33

With synths you have so many ways to shape the sound in the synths itself, that external preamps can be a bit of a waste. Pretty sure they can add something but I think other stuff can do more. Like a bit of eq and/or tweaking of the patch itself.

For mics and acoustic instruments changing the source isnā€™t as easy.

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#34

Yeah if you record direct in line a preamp is a luxury item. You absolutely donā€™t need one, but you might want one or like the way it sounds. Personally I run stuff thru a tascam 4track with the gain at max all the time, which makes the synth sound broken.

#35

Iā€™ve found switching on my broken SH-1 does the trick for that :wink: - no outboard required.

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#36

Sometimes it can simply depend on the speakers you use.

For example, I can connect the output of my synth directly to my active speakers.

However, if I wanted to hear my synth via my passive speakers I would have to go via a pre-amp because I cannot connect my synth to my power amp.

#37

Your speakers need the pre-amp, not the synth.

#38

Exactly, so if you are using passive speakers you will run your synth signal via a pre-amp.

No different to using a CD player, which can also be plugged directly into active speakers if you so wish.

#39

If youre using active speakers youā€™re also running your synth thru a preamp. But that pre amp is not supposed to colour the sound, or as little as possible. This is a bit besides what this thread is about.

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#40

Agreed, but then you may wish to consider the quality of a pre-amp in an active speaker compared to the quality of a stand-alone pre-amp?

If I was anal about hearing the best possible sound from my synth I would play it via my pre, power, passive set-up.

Iā€™m not and therefore am more than happy with the convenience of using my active speakers.

#41

that being said if I wasnt recording vocals and using mics i wouldnt have them lol

Very valid point here, Iā€™m pretty sure most people doing this kind of things (me included) have some expensive outboard for another reason than synths, but still use synths with those because they can.

Perfect exemple I can tall is when i bought my Culture Vulture Mastering Plus, well, for mastering purposes mainly, but the fact it has DI input on the front is a very cool bonus to put synths and drum machine through it, and it sound fantastic.

Iā€™d say it would be a bad idea to buy tons of super expensive mic pre only to use those for synthesizer, but if you can afford it and enjoy this way of working I donā€™t see why not hahaha.

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