Post
by Professor » Sat Sep 09, 2006 4:30 am
Funny thing is, I rip on people for this all the time.
Though don't get me wrong, I certainly love what an outboard preamp can do as an improvement over a console, but I know it's nothing compared to simply swapping the microphone out and getting the sound right from the start.
It's humorous to me to imagine guys with 2 or 3 mics in their locker and 5 or 6 preamps in the rack. I hadn't considered the idea that gear in the racks looks cooler than gear in the closet, but I also always figured everyone lusted after microphones more than preamps.
For me, it also came from the practical side of trying to grow my studio (at least when I was running my only own rig). Simply put, if I added more mics, I could record bigger sessions, but adding preamps just meant that the sessions I was doing could sound different... if I lugged 'em all around since I was mobile.
Then there was the way I learned to record which was in settings where I had access to at least a couple flavors of mics that were simply fed to a small mixer and then a 2-track recorder. (I cut my teeth doing live recital recordings as a student employee at the conservatory.) All I had was mic choices and placements and lots of poor souls to practice on... and no guidance. Oh, I can't imagine what some of those sound like.
Now that I understand quite a bit more about the technology and the process, it makes sense that microphones are performing such a significant job as 'transducers'. They are converting one form of energy (acoustic pressure waves in air) into another form of energy (electricity). That's the singularly most important step in recording as far as I'm concerned since everything else relies on that process being successful.
Certainly preamps are important too since more amplification happens there than at any other stage of the game. Signals are taken from the millivolt level up to the volt level, anywhere from about a 50 to perhaps a 1000 times increase in signal strength. Again, very important, and that's probably why so many people feel it's more important.
And then there's the question of sonics.
When I'm listening to an instrument or voice and trying to decide on a mic, I am thinking of the mic's tonal balance (like EQ), and its speed or response time, and its sensitivity considering how near or far from a loud or soft source it will need to be.
For example, if I've got a bright sounding violin that needs to be tamed to hang with a group I might want something that softens the highs without boosting lows, maybe something that is slightly slower in response to lose the scratchy sound of horsehair & rosin, but something that can still capture soft passages from a few feet above the player. If it's the only instrument in the room, I might reach for a nice ribbon mic, but if it's sitting among 5 other players, perhaps a tube condenser is in order. But if that same instrument needs to cut through the bridge in a thickly layered rock mix, then I might need a bright & fast condenser, maybe an SDC or a center-terminated LDC, and maybe something with a transformer so that scratchiness can be masked with a little harmonic color. Oh yeah, and I'd pick a preamp to compliment the mic choice.
Now as for preamps, there are some things that are easier to accomplish than others.
Preamps can also provide tonal color - that's easy, though there are limits. I can get enough color to maybe make an SM-57 sound like an RE-20, or the other way around, but it's harder to make a '57 sound like an RCA 44 or a TLM-103, because there is more than just tone involved in moving between classes of microphones.
That's where speed comes in, but the trouble is that they can't do as much with speed since they really can only move as fast or slower than the mic being fed to them. There's no preamp in the world that can make an SM-57 move as fast as an Earthworks QTC-1, though there are plenty that can make the QTC as slow as the '57.
And sensitivity is a really tough call. Certainly preamps with widely different input impedences can coax more or less signal out of a microphone, especially dynamic and ribbon mics. Hell, I have a pair of ViPres and the five impedence choices (4 on transformer, one transformerless) can really make one mic into five possibilities but it still can't make a '57 as sensitive as a C-414, let alone as sensitive as Gefell 930. And even in reverse, you can pad and reduce the gain, but if a sensitive mic is getting overpowered by the source, it just needs to either move or be swapped to another mic.
So yeah, there's my somewhat longer rant... in total agreement.
And again, don't get me wrong here, I like preamps too and in fact I'd like to add some more to my rig here. But I really think it's important to cover all the basics in terms of mics first before trying to have preamps fill in the holes.
And at least for me, I figure those basics as a pair of multi-pattern LDCs, a pair of SDCs in cardioid (and maybe another pair in omni), a handful of small dynamics with at least two of any particular type, and at least one large dynamic. After that you can get maybe one 2-channel or bigger preamp. But then it's back to mics to get at least one tube LDC, at least one ribbon or maybe a pair, a pair of passive DI boxes, and a transformer-coupled condenser (or transformerless if there's already a transformer in your basic set). Then splurge and get a couple more preamps. And really specialized mics like lavs, shotguns, PZMs, contact mics, etc. should only appear in the locker if you need them for location or unusual session work, or if you come across 'em by luck, gift, or screaming deals.
Does that seems like a good formula?
-Jeremy
