Gain Staging / 44.1hz Or Higher?

[KXNG iLLuSioN]

Hello everyone,

New here and I was wondering if I may get some advice.

Gear:
Microphone: TLM 103
Interface: Scarlett Focusrite 2i2 (3rd gen)
Pre-Amp: Focusrite ISA One
Headphones: DT beyerdynamic DT 900 PRO 250ohm
Acoustic Treatment
Portable Vocal Shield

DAW:
Pro Tools 12

OPS: Windows 11


I only record vocals and its usually to (Leased WAV) 2 track hip hop beats.
I have the preamp and interface wired correctly and I can record into pro tools with no issues. I'm trying to get professional sounding vocals. I have been messing around with "gain staging", I have watched countless you tube videos and was wondering if there is any extra advice out there for me.

As in Should I be driving the Input or Trim knob more on the ISA One?

My TLM 103 has a level of 50 ohms so should my impedance on the ISA One be low (600 ohms) or the ISA 110 (1400 ohms) or even higher?

Should I be recording my sessions in 44.1hz, 48hz or ect?

Sorry if its confusing and thank you in advanced

[albee1952]

This is opinion as I am not a scientist I assume the ISA pre is feeding a TRS input of the Scarlett(going in on the XLR would be wrong).

Should I be driving the Input or Trim knob more on the ISA One? Only if you want to add some mild distortion(which often does sound good). My own experience with the ISA preamps was that they were great for pristine sound, but not strong on "character"(like you might get from a Neve 1073). Experimentation is always a good thing

My TLM 103 has a level of 50 ohms so should my impedance on the ISA One be low (600 ohms) or the ISA 110 (1400 ohms) or even higher? You should set that to wherever it sounds best to you(options are good). Personally, I stuck mine at the 110 setting, but I was not recording vocals with mine.

Should I be recording my sessions in 44.1hz, 48hz or ect? My personal choice is 48K. I do pop/rock/country and 48K works well(slightly better top end than 44.1 without taxing the computer and only a mild increase in drive usage). Most stuff that goes to youtube needs to be 48K anyway. Look at how your final product is going to be distributed. Another setting that matters is the bit depth. Of the 3 options(16, 24 and 32), my best advice is skip 16 bit as the other 2 options have more headroom(again, experiment). Just remember that IF you are making files for CD, they will end up at 44.1, so you NEED to use dither as the very last process.

[KXNG iLLuSioN]

Wow, thank you so much! I truly appreciate that. A lot of really good information. Yea TRS (Balanced) Running from Scarlett to XLR

[BScout]

Rule is low into high impedance. The higher the difference between source (mic) and input (mic pre) the cleaner the signal and retention of higher frequencies.

No need to go over 48k. Human voice doesn't go anywhere near 24kHz (Nyquist limit for 48k recordings) and the TLM103 doesn't even output usable info above that. So recording above 48k just creates bigger files with either nothing or weird electronic harmonics (usually from filters applied to the signal by your audio interface, etc).

24bit recording (though you can set your PT session higher to 32 bit float if you want.) Your converters only go to 24 bit anyway in the hardware. 32 bit is useful only for transferring files to others for additional processing/mixing. (no matter what your session is set at, PT operates at 32/64 internally so this setting doesn't affect plugin/mix processing)

[KXNG iLLuSioN]

Originally Posted by BScout

Rule is low into high impedance. The higher the difference between source (mic) and input (mic pre) the cleaner the signal and retention of higher frequencies.

Thank you for the reply. Trying to learn as much as I can. So The Higher the impedance the cleaner it will sound? The TLM103 is 50ohms so of I wanted a cleaner sound I can set the Impedance on the Mic Pre to be in the 1400ohms range?

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by KXNG iLLuSioN

Wow, thank you so much! I truly appreciate that. A lot of really good information. Yea TRS (Balanced) Running from Scarlett to XLR

Need clarification on this. I just want to be sure you are using the proper connections, so the XLR output of the ISA connects to the TRS input of the Scarlett? For future reference, think in terms of signal flow(which means describing running FROM the Scarlett, TO the ISA is backwards from the signal flow)

[BScout]

Originally Posted by KXNG iLLuSioN

Thank you for the reply. Trying to learn as much as I can. So The Higher the impedance the cleaner it will sound? The TLM103 is 50ohms so of I wanted a cleaner sound I can set the Impedance on the Mic Pre to be in the 1400ohms range?

Yes.
That difference should be at least x10 times. Once you get to x100 times (not really needed but there are preamps that can do this), there isn’t really much to gain. But most of the advantage happens by x10

[KXNG iLLuSioN]

Originally Posted by BScout

Yes.
That difference should be at least x10 times. Once you get to x100 times (not really needed but there are preamps that can do this), there isn’t really much to gain. But most of the advantage happens by x10

Thank you so much! I truly appreciate the useful info