[PodcastMN] Whaddya think?

[Paul Cantrell]

It sounds like you've been steered into complete overkill. You  
certainly don't need to spend thousands to get a reasonably quiet  
sound. Pristine album quality sound, yes; reasonably quiet sound, no.

I do In the Hands on a total audio hardware budget of about $1300:  
one GT66 and one AMT M40, and a Presonus Firepod. No fancy preamps —  
just the Firepod's — and no analog mixer. I get a pretty darned low  
noise floor: certainly less than -50dB; probably more like -70, which  
is more than good enough.

Even that setup is overkill if you're doing podcasting or voice over  
work, because you would only need one of the mics.

This stuff about $2000 pres is bullshit if your only wish is to lower  
the noise floor; the expensive pres are all about getting perfect  
color and transients and things that you really only care about if  
you're recording music.

What's the application here? Are you doing a podcast? Professional  
voice-over work? Recording an album?

What is the total SNR you're getting?

Have you isolated the source of the noise? What is the SNR of the D/A  
by itself? The mixing board? The preamp?

Do you really need an analog mixer? Doing it in software won't work?


This is already two of the topics already on the docket for Podcamp —  
there's a panel discussion on practical tricks to get good sound on a  
budget, and Michael Koppelman had talked about doing a technical  
discussion of the audio chain.

Cheers,

Paul


On Aug 17, 2007, at 8:20 AM, Steve Borsch wrote:

>
> I've been pretty silent on the PodcastMN list as of late, and those  
> of you who know me have no doubt seen my podfading since this  
> Spring. It's been a busy time and I've also spent the summer caring  
> for my 94 year old father-in-law and my 81 year old dad...since I  
> could.
>
> Here's the deal: why is audio so hard? There are a crapload of  
> products....but to get truly quiet sound a person needs to spend  
> THOUSANDS....or is there a better way?
>
> A new idea for my bride's business meant that I need actual  
> broadcast quality audio. So I decided to beef up my gear which was  
> the AudioTechnica 3035 mic and a Mackie 1202 mixing board. I went  
> with the Shure SM7B -- since it's the voiceover gold standard --  
> and bought the Alesis Multimix8 Firewire. After TONS of work trying  
> to get these to give me good results, it turns out that the guy at  
> Guitar Center goofed: the preamps in a cheap ($300) mixing board  
> can't power the Shure and I had to max out the gain and, of course,  
> the output was hissy and noisy.
>
> Next I take back the Alesis and the GC sales guy has a bunch of  
> boards -- and the SM7B ($350) buy a Trident preamp ($800) with  
> built-in EQ -- and just in case I buy a Monster power conditioner.  
> I get it home, hook up all this stuff, start to play with it and  
> you guessed it: there is still noise AND when I turn on the EQ  
> button, it introduces yet more noise.
>
> Arghh.....
>
> So I emailed Shure yesterday about the Mackie 1202 VLZ3 ($300 mixer  
> with +60db preamps...enough to power the Shure) and the guy in tech  
> support basically tells me that "we've not had good luck with cheap  
> preamps...call the guys at Sweetwater Sound and they can help you."  
> Yeah sure....and try to sell me a $2,000 preamp.
>
> Now on to the question since I'm fired up to start in earnest again  
> and really just want a dead quiet preamp: am I trying to buy a BMW  
> for the price of a Chevy Cavalier? Is it just not possible to get  
> quiet sound out of a preamp and drive a great mic like the Shure?
>
> If you know of anyone that I could talk to that is a sound engineer  
> (or if you have a solution) I'm all ears and this could also be a  
> GREAT topic for Podcamp.
>
> -- 
> Steve Borsch
> Direct/Mobile: 952.486.7678
> Email: Steve at iConnectDots.com
> Blog: http://www.iConnectDots.com
> ----------------------------------------
> Next Meetup: PODCAMPMN
> 10am Sat. Aug. 25, 2007
> Flat Earth Brewery, St. Paul
> ----------------------------------------
> These are the Podcasters in your Neighborhood
> http://frappr.com/podcastmn
> ----------------------------------------
>
> PodcastMN - The Sound of Minnesota
> PodcastMN at lists.podcastmn.com
> http://lists.podcastmn.com/mailman/listinfo/podcastmn

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.podcastmn.com/pipermail/podcastmn/attachments/20070817/5d83066f/attachment.html>