1. Even a super-inexpensive mic preamp like the $39
Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC100 can provide useful
coloration in the studio. 2. A channel strip—like the
Joemeek threeQ—offers a one-stop recording solution
that connects directly to your DAW. 3. The PreSonus
DigiMax D8 provides eight mic preamps that can be
fed digitally into your DAW, instantly expanding the
number of tracks you can record at once.
In my June 2012 column, “Delving Deeper
into the Audio Interface,” we discussed
audio interfaces and how some have built-in
microphone preamps—just plug in your mic
and get recording. So why would you want to
have one or more separate mic preamps?
First of all, most audio interfaces have
a limited number of mic preamp inputs.
Interfaces with two mic preamp inputs
are common, some offer four, and some
have as many as eight. But if you’re trying
to record a full band, that may not be
enough. Fortunately, many audio interfaces
offer line-level inputs along with their
built-in mic preamps. By using these line level
inputs to route signals from external
preamps into the interface, you can run
more mics simultaneously.
The second reason to use external mic
preamps is for the tonal colorations they
can provide. In most cases, the microphone
preamps that are built into audio interfaces
are designed to be clean and transparent.
But if you want a different tonal coloration,
external mic preamps can help. Some are
designed for clean and transparent operation,
while others are designed to provide a
specific “color” to the signals they process.
Some offer thick mids, others offer warm
top end, and so on.
In the “clean” category, you’ll find
preamps from Grace Designs, Millennia
Media, GML, and others. “Colored” preamps
include Chandler Limited, Universal
Audio, and A Designs. “Classic” mic pres
include those designed by the legendary
Rupert Neve, who has made preamps for
Neve, Focusrite, Amek, and his current
company, Rupert Neve Designs. You can
also find Neve preamp clones, such as
those from Great River, Vintech, and Brent
Averill. Many engineers love API preamps
for drums and electric guitar because of
their thick, punchy midrange response.
In my opinion, the contribution a preamp
makes to a recorded sound is often subtle
compared to the contribution made by the
microphone and mic placement. And certainly,
getting the sound right at the source before
it ever goes into a mic makes the biggest contribution
to the final sound. My advice is to
go for the best preamp you can get with your
resources. These days, even an inexpensive
preamp can give you great sound quality.
External microphone preamps can provide
features beyond boosting mic-level signals
into line-level signals. Some offer built-in
analog-to-digital converters so you can route
your microphone into the digital inputs on
your audio interface. Some preamps include
built-in equalizers so you can adjust the tone
of your signals as they pass through the box.
And some have built-in compressors for controlling
dynamics as you record signals. Some
even go further with built-in de-essers, gating,
and other processing. Such preamps are usually
referred to as “channel strips,” because they
resemble a channel from a full-featured mixer.
Whether these additional features are worth
having depends on how you like to work.
There are basically two camps of recording
engineers. One camp likes to commit
to a sound as they are recording. They’re
happy to use EQ and compression as they
are tracking to fine-tune the signal on the
way into the recorder. Someone in this
camp would find built-in processing in a
microphone preamp to be very useful.
The other camp likes to track “dry,” with
no EQ, compression, or other processing.
The idea is to capture a robust, unaltered
signal that can be processed during mixdown
to adjust the tone or dynamics as
required. The advantage to this approach
is that you hear each signal in context of
the overall mix and are free to do what is
necessary without having to work around
EQ or compression that was applied during
recording. Someone in this camp would
prefer to have their microphone preamps
unadorned with additional features.
Which method is better? It comes down
to what you are doing, the types of signals
you are recording, and how you like to progress
through a project. Personally, I prefer to
have a mix of preamps available and I work
with external preamps most of the time
for maximum flexibility and for additional
options while tracking. I like to have clean,
transparent preamps for acoustic guitars and
for capturing pristine electric tones. Then I
like to have a colored preamp or two, including
a tube preamp that can thicken and
“punch up” electric tones. A channel strip
(transparent and colored types of these are
available too) is useful for tweaking the tone
and smoothing out dynamics a bit on the
way into the audio interface.
External preamps are useful for the color
and features they can provide, but they are
not essential. You can capture great sounding
tracks using the preamps that are in
your mixer or audio interface.
Mitch Gallagher is
the former editor in chief of
EQ magazine. He’s written
more than 1000 articles
and six books on recording
and music technology, and
has released an instructional
DVD on mastering. His upcoming book is
entitled
Guitar Tone: Pursuing the Ultimate
Electric Guitar Sound. To learn more, visit
mitchgallagher.com.