ANy good ideas for a new preamp?

I would separate out the pre-amp from the audio interface and get a nice pre-amp now and just feed it to the converters. Then you can upgrade the audio interface later. Audio interfaces will come and go, but a good pre-amp you can keep forever.

I like my UA Solo/610, which is around that new and findable easily for considerably less used. It wouldn't be the best choice for metal probably, but you don't do that kind of music. It has a nice vintage sound that can be semi-clean to quite harmonically enhanced depending on how much you push the input.

Hi again,

I checked out the UA Solo 610 and that looks good.
My only concern is my monitors and headphones attach to my M-Audio firewire 410 directly. Would the UA solo 610 plug into my M-Audio firewire?

I admit I am basic when it comes to set-up:-)

Thanks!

What is the difference between preamp and audio interface? I think I am calling audio interfaces preamp.
Does an audio interface make a good preamp?

The Focusrite saffire is an interface - it has built-in preamps but also has analog to digital and digital to analog converters.  Preamps are ampfliers made to boost the tiny signals coming from a mic into a line level signal that is easier to use in audio processes.  A good example is the Focusrite ISA One since you are asking about Focusrite.  This is not the same preamp as in the saffire range - and costs more than most of the Focurite interfaces.  Middleman above gives a good breakdown on the difference, but more specific is the 75 dB gain in the ISA One and probably 60 dB in the saffire.  There are other differences, too, but having more gain means you can place a mic farther away from a source if necessary w/o adding noise.  A good example of this is watching a pro studio recording session as opposed to home recording.  In the studio the mic is usually placed a little farther from the singer - a foot or more.  At home, many singers get right up on the mic.  W/o gain and unless you've got a belter, a weaker preamp means getting close to the mic to get the volume.  You also skip some of the usually untreated room sound.  In a properly treated room (don't say vocal booth) you back off the mic and get more "air" around the recording.  There are a bunch of reasons to use a separate preamp - these are a few examples.  You can spend a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand, but that first hundred makes the biggest difference.  Kinda like wine - you have perfectly good wine at $10 a bottle but some people can taste the difference between it and a $25 or $50 of wine.  Once you get into the hundreds per bottle, most people can't tell the difference between the higher end stuff, even if they can between it and the cheaper bottles.  But with a little training many people can - it is the same w/ sound.  Hopefully all the knowledge and expense pays off in your sound.

@

Just want to add a comment.

In the context of this thread and most audio discussions a "preamp" describes an amp primarily designed to amplify microphone signals. Most "preamps" have 60dB to 80dB gain capabilities.

I just point this out becasue it may become confusing if we don't acknowledge that there are several other possible gain stages that might be discussed in passing. Those other amp stages might be called preamps as well and are often times called line amps or stage amps or buffer amps.

Those are the amp stages you want to know about, without getting confused, when you are deciding if you want to use a separate preamp while bypassing some other preamp.


The point, almost all interfaces have a mic preamp as well as some stage amps. If you want to bypass the preamp it's good to know about the stage amps... not all interfaces have easily bypassed preamps.

best regards,
mike

From a quick check, it looks like the two XLR ports on the front have a mic/line switch. You'd just flip one of them over to Line and feed the output of the 610 into that (it outputs a line level signal if you set the switch on the back to Line which you would want to do.)

The four analog inputs on the back could also take the signal, but they are unbalanced inputs, so you'd be better off using the front XLR inputs so that you'll have a balanced connection from the 610, for less possibility of noise. But, if you needed to use the front two at the same time (to record three mics at once) you could use an XLR to unbalanced cable to go into one of the rear analog inputs in a pinch.
 
It has two knobs, the input controls the input gain to the pre-amp and the output controls the output gain to the line output. For louder sources just bring the input gain down. Generally you set the input gain around 7'ish, and adjust the output gain to get the desired level into your D/A. But you can get a range of coloration by putting the input gain lower and the output gain higher (cleaner) or the other way around to push the input of the pre-amp more. You'll hear it start getting fatter sounding because it's starting to distort subtly which adds harmonic content to the signal. Or, if you start seeing the clip light come on on the front, you should lower the input gain knob more and raise the output (if needed) to make up for it.
 
It also makes a great DI for bass as well. I use mine all the time for mic'ing guitars and vocals and for bass DI'ing purposes.
 

I tried to fix some of the errors in spelling and phrasing in my previous post on this thread. Sorry for the errors that I could not fix;-)

karalie7 I put a sample up of my wife singing through the two preamps I have...True Systems and The Golden Age Pre73. You can listen to it here: http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks