| Think a
minute. A microphone actually converts sound energy into voltage.
But this voltage is very low, MUCH lower than the voltage coming out of your
keyboard or other line level processors. Your recording device can't
use this signal unless it boosted massively. Hence the preamp.
You already have a mic preamp on your computer, but it's only designed for
speech and cheap mic--totally unsuitable for serious work. You might
have Mic preamps on your mixer and they may work perfectly. However,
sometimes we want a better one than is on our mixer. And if you don't
have a mixer and are going mixerless, then you have to have a mic pre.
On this page you will see a lot of different preamps that will boost a
microphone signal without adding lots of noise. Remember that the Mic
Pre is one of the "core" devices that provide for sound quality. You
will see that there are many preamps here. There is one for every
budget.
How does it Connect?
You typically connect the output of the Mic
Preamp into the line inputs of the soundcard, mixer, or audio
interface. Some mic pres have digital outs to avoid another
digital to analog conversion. These would connect to the s/pdif in of
your interface or soundcard. |
