advice on preamp

Can you tell us more about what your goal is?

I owned and used the Delta 44 for several years, so I'm pretty familiar with it.
the only time I ever messed around with routing audio out and then back in again was when I was experimenting with "reamping" a clean guitar signal. I never had to do any "out and back in" tricks with synths.

What other external gear are you using; listing that may help shed some light.

Hope to help some more on this,
Ed

By going out from the delta 44 to my mixer a soundcraft m12 and midi out to my keyboard(audio out back to the mixer), I can hear the mix(some midi channel I send to the kb others I send thru dim pro.) I then route this signal from the either main or monitor out of the mixer, which ever is available back to the delta 44 to record an audio track in sonar for a backing track to use later. The signal is not amped by the board so it's line out strength.
I have S7, athlon 1.7 gh w/1gig mem delta 44 audio and an older EWS 88d that has midi in/out as well as s/pdif and adat. I also have an Fostex hd recorder that has adat and analog out that has been used to record from the Soundcraft.
So maybe I should ask is there a different way to mixdown midi,dim pro and audio with audio out to hear the mix as it's being recorded. I've had Sonar since ver 2.0 but have never gotten very deep into it except record the output to another device.
I'm using Band in a Box and Real Band from PG music that helps with styles for backing tracks. Sonar seems much easier to compile tracks that BIAB, But BIAB makes good midi style track for backing.
Thanks, Wyndham

Wicked,

he's got a mixer. I still don't understand what wyndham is trying to do.

Midi out to keyboard - it plays some of the midi parts. The rest goes to Dimension. Then there are audio tracks, too?

Ok, tho I don't know the particular hardware.

Delta out goes to mixer. Keyboard goes to mixer (hopefully the soundcraft has 4 inputs). The Dimension and audio get mixed in Sonar, the combined computer stuff and keyboard get mixed in the soundcraft. Two stereo out need to come from the soundcraft - they can be the same signal if necessary. The monitor out needs to go to the monitor, while the main goes back to the delta for combined recording in Sonar. If you just want the new keyboard, use a buss or sub out. Like I said, I don't know the hardware, but the principle is the same.

Does that clear things up for you, or are you trying something else?

let us know.

@

PS, nothing in the above needs a preamp - and the soundcraft should have some built in, anyway.

I think what we're missing is his input. How he gets from the mixer into the card.

On my mackie, I use the ALT outs to run into my audio interface. that way everything can come into the mixer and out to the monitors, but my MUTE/ALTing them I can route them into the DAW instead. Mixer has built in pres, so don't need any, though I do have an ART TubeMP hooked up (which is phenomenal for $40)

I am guessing what you are saying is that you record the midi and hear the audio from your hardware. You then want to record the audio from your keyboard outs back into your soundcard. It is hard to explain. ^_^

I use this.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FOCUSRITE-Twin-Track-Pro-Very-Cool_W0QQitemZ320294308691QQcmdZViewItem

If you have a hi-end keyboard then and use the sounds a lot I would be picky about my signal chain.

So let me give this a try. What you're trying to do is monitor what you've already got in Sonar, while outputting Midi to your keyboard and recording the audio output from the keyboard back into Sonar. And you're not satisfied with the level you're getting from the keyboard, because you're using its audio outs directly into the mixer without any kind of amplification. Is that right?

Assuming the preamps on the mixer are only for mics, you will want some kind of preamp, or you can just output the keyboard to a keyboard amp and record it with a microphone. There are ways to increase the volume in Sonar, using a compressor plug-in or limiter like Boost 11, or normalizing. You might want to try those first. Of course, you can also consider transitioning to soft synths and avoiding all the hassle.