Should I be using a pre-amp with mbox?

[tdellaringa]

Hi,

Do most of you use a pre-amp? With my first few practice sessions, I have not been getting a very good input signal, and this is with what I guess is the "gain" up all the way (the dial for the input channel). The more gain of course, the more noise...would a pre-amp help control that better?

[hands]

Gday,

There are two mic pre's on the mbox, which should be ok for most applications. But first you should be thinking about what your recording. If it is an instrument without much level, then your bound to get alot of noise when you crank up, well, most pre's. It is very important to have a good signal to noise ratio to msk any effects of the noise floor. As far as i know, the pre's on the mbox are ok.

What are you recording?

Hands.

[randyT]

It depends on what you are connecting to the M-Box. Let us know exactly what you are connecting including the model number and perhaps someone will tell you the best way to hook it up. The noise is usually just a mismatched input.

randy

[grindx]

From your other post it sounds to me like you are not getting much output from the tie clip mic/receiver combo. The problem probably has more to do with what the mic will pick up. Do you have it up close to his collar? That's a lot better placement than mid-tie level. You could also put it on his lapel, about where you would place a flower on a wedding tuxedo. Also make sure that it is pointing at his mouth. The Inverse Square Law says that if you can cut the distance between a sound source(mouth) and the mic in half, you will increase the signal by 6db.

[David MacNeill]

In our little audiobook production studio we found the pres in the MBox to be totally inadequate when it came to levels. As you've noted, you have to dime it and then it has this unacceptably huge noise floor. We bypassed it altogether by using a Presonus Eureka connected via SPDIF. Sounds great and it's as loud as we want it to be with negligible noise -- even with our Studio Projects T5 tube mic.