[PodcastMN] Whaddya think?

[Creot Radio]

the other thing i was gonna mention is that i have a mackie 1402.

the preamps on it are great.  at least for the price.  the the mackie's are
notorious for having crappy eq.  mine sounds pretty noisy if i try to eq
anything in the board.  but it sounds pretty ok if i just set all the eq's
to zero and skip over them.

it might just be the eq's in your board.

FYI.

On 8/17/07, Paul Cantrell <cantrell at pobox.com> wrote:
>
> 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 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
>
>


-- 
http://www.creotradio.net
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