Conclusion and Recommendation: You should NOT record without a preamp
If quality is important to you when recording, then you should not record your tracks without passing the signal through the pre-amp. Below are some common scenarios in any home studio recording project that you should be using a pre-amp:
a.) Recording vocals and background vocals
b.) Recording acoustic guitars and electric guitars (either using microphone or DI techniques)
c.) Recording drums
d.) Recording any musical instruments
Where can I find my pre-amp in the signal chain? Pre-amp is placed right after the microphone or instrument level output. Refer to the signal flow chart below:
Once the signal is in great shape after the pre-amplification outputs it will then feed to an analog to digital converter. This will convert to digital data which will then be save in your hard drive during the recording session.
Pre-amps can be a very expensive recording gear. However the good news is that there is a high quality audio interface that includes a pre-amp on its input such as Focusrite Saffire Pro 40. So you do not need to buy an external pre-amp hardware because the audio interface can handle both pre-amplification and analog to digital conversion.
Content last updated on August 7, 2012
4 Responses
Hi Eddie,
Thanks for those manuals, I take a closer look at your setup and it seems you only need a direct box in this case and not a preamp. TASCAM DR-100 mk2 already includes a built-in preamp that you can use. For details, I have just written a tutorial about this illustrating your case. You can read it here. I am sure you obtain lots of valuable information in that post. I also receive common inquiries on this topic so I think writing a blog post would summed up everything in one page. Cheers and Good luck to your projects.
Hi Emerson:
On closer inspection, the piano has AUX OUT for the RCA output. Is that the same as LINE OUT? Hmmm, I hope I didn’t make a mistake on that point. If I don’t need a Preamp then I can save myself an extra step. Here are the answers to your questions:
1. The recorder is a TASCAM DR-100 mk2. Here is the link to the PDF owners manual.
http://tascam.com/content/downloads/products/718/e_dr-100mk2_om_va.pdf
2. The piano has only RCA AUX OUT. No TRS. No XLR. No optical out. It has USB but that is only for transferring MIDI files to flash memory or connecting a laptop. I assume this is analog out since it’s RCA left and right connectors. I have checked the manual but it makes no mention of the RCA specs. I have been recording the piano in stereo mode. I can confirm that too since some instruments are either on one channel or the other. I can also see different sound signatures on the DAW waveform on each channel. It’s true stereo.
This is a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-295GP digital piano. Here is the link to the PDF.
http://download.yamaha.com/api/asset/file/?language=pt&site=pt.yamaha.com&asset_id=8072
Wow. I would be happy to hear that I don’t really need a preamp, if that is the case. Thank you so much for all your help. I truly appreciate your assistance and generosity. I look forward to hearing from you again.
eddie
Hi Eddie,
Wait a minute,are you planning to send line output levels to a preamp? Are you sure it is already line level audio signal? It is because line levels are already amplified in nature and if you pass them again to a preamp, it can distort the recordings (by overdriving the preamp). You only need to feed either instrument or microphone levels to a preamp. Read this tutorial illustrating the key differences between a line, instrument and microphone levels.
Some key questions here that needs to be answered before I can suggest some better ways on improving your setup:
1.) What is your digital recorder? Is it a DAW (a PC, Mac, Laptop using hard drive to store digital audio) or any a digital audio mixer with a recorder such as hard drive. If you can provide the exact brand/model of your digital recorder, the better. Or if you have the manual of that in PDF, please share as I would take a look.
2.) I got a bit confused about your piano outputs. Are there any other outputs aside from RCA (such as XLR or TRS balanced etc)? Is this an analog or digital output? Are you intending to record the piano in stereo or mono? Also if you have the exact brand and model of your digital piano , please provide so that I could take a look at the manual to see the details of their outputs. Or if you already have the manual, kindly share.
Once I entirely know about your setup, I could recommend better ways to capture the best sound of your piano. I believe (not yet sure) you don’t need a preamp here as you are already sending a line level to your digital recorder. What is probably needed is an external audio interface (USB or Firewire) to convert analog audio (if you are using piano analog outputs) to 24-bit/96KHz digital audio as you have wished to be sent to your digital recorder. But again, I am not sure if your digital recorder can accept USB, Firewire or SPDIF digital audio streams.
As you can see, you already learn lots of things by reading this blog and then actually applying the knowledge in your home studio setups.
Hello Emerson:
You were kind enough to answer some of my questions before and I wonder if I may indulge on your kindness again. I need a recommendation for a pre-amp. Let me explain my circumstances.
I want to record from a digital piano. This is my setup.
piano > LINE OUT (2 female RCA outputs) > digital recorder > DAW > CD
Now, I know you highly recommended I use a microphone but there is more here. This is an advanced piano with multi-track recording. I am able to play numerous other instruments (midi) and record them together in concert-like fashion. The result sounds like a real band or orchestra.
I believe it would be difficult to capture the complete fidelity of all the additional instruments from mics alone since these sounds are coming from the piano’s amplified speaker system. This is why I prefer to record from LINE OUT.
I agree that a pre-amp is necessary to achieve pristine sound quality. The recorder is able to capture sound up to 24-bit 96kHz using XLR LINE IN and record at these specs:
LINE 1 (Switch is set to LINE )
Input Impendance 2.5kΩ
Nominal Input Level +4dBu
Maximum Input Level +24dBu
Of course, I would need adapter cables like RCA (from piano) to XLR LINE IN (to recorder).
So, the set up would hopefully look like this in the future:
piano > LINE OUT (2 female RCA outputs) > Preamp > digital recorder > DAW > CD
I just need a simple pre-amp without additional features that I would never use. If you could recommend a particular brand or two, that would at least give me a place to start.
Thank you kindly for your time and advice. I continue to study from your compendium of knowledge.
eddie