help with preamp

guitarsark · Post by **guitarsark** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:39 am

i am currently running dp4 with an echo mia sound card. i am trying to record some quieter jazzy guitar and have my amp mic'd with an sm57 which goes into my mackie board and then into the soundcard. so the mackie is the only pramp i'm using. i am finding it hard to get a loud enough signal without turning the amp up real loud. is there some sort of preamp that i could get that would help with this? dont want to spend a ton of money, it's just a small home studio. thanks

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:54 am

Well the best sound is going to come from the source, first. If you don't turn up the amp, you're going to have to crank a mic and pre to get the gain and then you're recording more noise than tone. You need to turn up your amp, but understand that is also where your tone comes from with driving the amp itself. The mic and pre is important, not to take lightly. BUT it's not a replacement for just running a low volume to begin with.

jarok · Post by **jarok** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:55 am

Hi

I would try this:

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... tarrig2_us

jarok

markwayne · Post by **markwayne** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:08 am

You should be able to get plenty of gain out of those Mackie mic pres for an SM57. Is it possible that your sound card is looking for +4dB and your Mackie is running at -10dB? If so, does your soundcard have some sort of switch change the inputs to -10dB? It might be on the box or it could be a software switch.

If that doesn't work, try running direct. Unless you have a really nice amp that you are trying to capture, I tend to just run direct through a decent direct box.

good luck,
Wayne

guitarsark · Post by **guitarsark** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:03 am

thanks, i'll try some of these ideas out.