Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Keyplayer]

Loco wrote on Mon, 29 November 2004 00:01

No matter how hard you scream at that U87, you'll get nothing coming out the LA-2A unless you place a mic pre between them. Just like you'll get nothing on a digital board unless you put an ADC between the analog signal and the DSP. I'm sure the MixMag thing is either a typo or misinformation. As usual.

Keyplayer: As ususal? I thought they were a reputable publication (besides the obvious advertising dollar yoke all publications carry). Not true?

[tom eaton]

http://www.aphex.com/1100.htm

The Aphex 1100 has a limiter function that does, in fact, operate before the preamp stage.  Works well, too.

-tom

[Bob Olhsson]

FWIW a number of condenser mikes have enough output to drive an LA-2a and some other limiters. This might be sent to a console in order to bring the level up and apply some eq. I've done it myself using an LA-3a set to high gain.

[Keyplayer]

Bob Olhsson wrote on Mon, 29 November 2004 14:49

FWIW a number of condenser mikes have enough output to drive an LA-2a and some other limiters. This might be sent to a console in order to bring the level up and apply some eq. I've done it myself using an LA-3a set to high gain.

Keyplayer: So you CAN place a compressor before the Mic Pre?

[Bob Olhsson]

You CAN but the question is if you want to. The vast majority of mikes haven't got enough output in the first place. Then there's the question of gain structure. If you need to pad a signal down below its original level, you are asking for a higher noise level. In a few cases running straight into a limiter offers a better gain structure but these are rare.

[Tomas Danko]

Keyplayer wrote on Tue, 30 November 2004 10:33

Bob Olhsson wrote on Mon, 29 November 2004 14:49 FWIW a number of condenser mikes have enough output to drive an LA-2a and some other limiters. This might be sent to a console in order to bring the level up and apply some eq. I've done it myself using an LA-3a set to high gain. Keyplayer: So you CAN place a compressor before the Mic Pre?

A lot of times the window of operation in terms of signal voltage on the compressor is not going to align well with the min-max swing coming from the signal of the mic without a preamp. You might find it very difficult to maintain control over the compressor, and thus not using it to do the best it possibly could. The only reason for doing this, the way I see it, is if your console didn't have an insert and no on-board compressors and you needed compression big time. Not sure I'd do it that way, still.

Cheers,

Tomas Danko

[bobkatz]

Keyplayer wrote on Tue, 30 November 2004 05:33

Bob Olhsson wrote on Mon, 29 November 2004 14:49 FWIW a number of condenser mikes have enough output to drive an LA-2a and some other limiters. This might be sent to a console in order to bring the level up and apply some eq. I've done it myself using an LA-3a set to high gain. Keyplayer: So you CAN place a compressor before the Mic Pre?

If you use a "mike pre" after the LA-2A done as Bob mentions, it would be for a touchup gain, probably no more than 10-15 dB if at all. You probably can execute that more cleanly in a line stage amp. But the LA-2A probably will start making quite a bit of noise even if fed from a high output condensor; I wouldn't recommend it. Bob O was simply pointing out that some compressors have a lot of gain and in some cases can be made semi-compatible with the direct output of some microphones. Approach doing something like this with a great deal of thought and knowledge of gain structure and with what can go wrong (usually noise-wise) if you don't watch out.

BK

[Duardo]

Quote:

No matter how hard you scream at that U87, you'll get nothing coming out the LA-2A unless you place a mic pre between them. Just like you'll get nothing on a digital board unless you put an ADC between the analog signal and the DSP. I'm sure the MixMag thing is either a typo or misinformation. As usual

You couldn't do it with a U87 because the U87 requires phantom power.  Since the U47 (which was mentioned in the article) is a tube microphone and uses its own power supply, it's entirely feasible that it could be used in the manner described.  I know quite a few tube microphone power supplies output relatively hot levels.  

I believe that Aphex's cheaper 207 also has the limiter before the preamp.  I used one once on drum overheads and got a nice distorted sound hitting it hard.

-Duardo