software

How essential is a good microphone preamp if I want to be doing home recording? It will be nothing fancy, very basic: Amp gt; SM57 gt; CPU soundcard
I also read that having a mixer in between the mic and cpu will help improve the levels. Would a mic preamp work better for this purpose, or will that cheapo mixer from Behringer do the trick? Thanks Eric

If you are looking for a good mic pre they are fairly expensive. Mackie makes some small mixers that will work pretty well, so will the Behringers I guess. I haven't really fallen in love with their stuff. I have tried a bunch of inexpensive pre's and they don't do much for me. They work but most of them don't add the warmth I'd like they just make eveything a bit brighter.

I'd like to try one of the newer Joemeek pre's or one of the real nice Avalon or Focusrite pieces but I can get what I need with out them so far. With just an SM57 you'd be better served getting a small mixer that can provide phantom power and score a few other mics to play around with. That'll do more for you than a new pre IMO.

I'm a big advocate of mic preamp. All mixers have mic preamps built in and you control them with the trim pot. Just remember that a big part of the cost of a mixer is in the mic preamps. Inexpensive mixers will have marginal mic pres and they will get you level but they won't nessessarily get you tone.

Since you are recording to PC your recording software will most likely have mixing capabilities so you might be better served with $100-$200 worth of preamp instead of a $100-$200 mixer with $25 worth of preamp in it. I'm just slightly spoiled and my recording rig has 4 Focusrite mic pres and I also have an Aphex 207 dual tube mic preamp so I get deceint tone here at the house. I also have a 20 channel Mackie board but I never record through it. The tone of a $400 Aphex preamp blows the tone from the $800 Mackie board away.

You can do it either way but it's been my experience that when recording to computer a good stand alone preamp is more useful than an additional board, unless you plan on recording a whole band all at once but then you'll need a lot more board than you can get for cheap.

I just did a musicians friend search on quot;mic preampsquot; and there are several single channel tube mic preamps that look deceint in the $50-$100. I haven't had any experience with them but I've heard good things about the PreSonus.

Hugely imperative that you get a good quality mic pre, ive had great success with ART Tube MP Products. Applied Research and Technology.

I have a mic pre that has an xlr in and out, as well as 1\4 in and 1\4 out, so it also acts as a DI Box. Real cheap to, like 100 bucks canadian. Check em out, there great. To run into ur sound card, you can buy an adapter to go from 1\4 to RCA jacks, and then from RCA jacks to a 1\8 jack which should go into alot of sound cards. Its a tube preamp so really warm sounding. Check em out

Everything I record goes thru a ART tube OPL (output protection limiting) B4
it hits my soundcard. It has One 1/4 phono in/out ,One XLR in/out
20db Gain, 48v phantom power, phase correction and limiting. I think I payed
$69 for it ?

Do a search on ebay for a quot;t1953quot; It is a behringer 2 chanhnel tube preamp with a warmth control and a high cut filter, phase switch, phantom power and don't pay over $75. 10-15 shipping. I have one and i love it, i use it with 57's, 58's, a RODE NTK, and run it into a Digi 002 board, and it warms it up sooo nicly! You might want to change the tubes in it after you get it, but even with the stock tubes it will add alot to your recordings. you can put two different tubes in and have the advantage of two different sound as well.

A little off topic but i just got a behringer ADA8000 8-channel pre-amp and this think is a great buy for the versitility that it has offered me.
DJM

i highly recommend the M Audio Mobile Pre ... it is 2 channel ... high quality A / D / A .. USB connection to the computer .. bypasses the typically substandard sound circuitry on most computers ... $150 .. super easy to use ... unless you have a really good soundcard in a really (electrically) quiet computer, a good outboard mic pre will only reveal the weakness of your computer's sound card ... the mobile pre eliminates this problem

good luck
t4d

Thanks everyone, armed with this info, it seems that a preamp is the way to go for me... Not to expensive, under $200 bucks. I looked around, and the Behringer goes new for $130, and the PreSonus $100. What do you guys think? Which is the better deal? The Behringer has two inputs, to the PreSonus's one. Which would you buy I guess is my question?

If you want a near new Presonus I have one for sale in the trading post.

Go with the Beringer mixer to get the signal into your computer. Then try adding a PSP Vintage Warmer to the track. It is a compresser VST that brings out the most wonderful sounds. I use it on almost every track I've ever worked on, on my computer. If You have trouble finding one just let me know. I would recommend this as essential to everyone working on computers!

I use a Behringer quot;Tube Ultragain Mic 200quot; and I'm quite happy with it. It costed something around 70 bucks, has phantom power, phase reverse, 20db pad and a tube. While I think, that the Tube doesn't do very much, it sounds quite quot;freshquot; and the has different EQ settings. I feed that thing into the LineIn of my Audigy and it sounds imo good.
I was told, that the PreSonus would sound overall fresher/better but the Behringer was cheaper, and I found nothing wrong with it. And you can't have too much inputs...

Hmmm... there are just too damn many choices. I don't think I will need a mixer, like Robert said, because I have my software for that. But as far as preamps go, it seems like, until you buy an stupidly expensive one, they don't do much. There's no way im shelling out a grand or two for a preamp - but I like the looks of that Behringer that you talk about Grams...

A good mic pre is worth the investment. The 2-ch FMR AUdio RNP is excellent, athough not cheap (not outrageous either). It works beautifully with their 2-ch compressor, the RNC. Some folks who know more than I do think that a good mic pre is even more important when using a dynamic mic like the SM57 than when using a typical condenser mic.

Note, however, that you might also find a use for a good mixer if you are recording to PC -- with a good alt bus or some creative wiring you will find it easier to achieve zero-latency monitoring for overdubs.