To the original poster: The fact that you're using a SM58 and a SB Live indicates that you're on the cost-effective side of things. If the signal level is strong enough, then you don't need a preamp, nor do you need to change your sound card. On Thu, 2006-09-21 at 00:07 +0200, Carlo Capocasa wrote: Full analog signal bullsh**. "Pro recording" and cards with integrated mic preamps do not mix. That's bang-for-the-buck amateur recording, not "pro". There are three reasons to get a mic preamp: 1. The signal is too low for the existing card This is the most obvious reason. This situation can also be remedied by a card with an integrated preamp, if the quality requirements are not too high. If the signal is strong enough and you're satisfied NOW with the quality, then you don't need a mic preamp, obviously. 2. Sound quality The majority of the preamps integrated in sound cards are in the low end of the quality spectrum. The best ones are somewhere in the midrange. There is no high-end mic preamp integrated with a sound card, unless you include in the "sound card" category some multichannel mixing consoles connected digitally to a workstation (and even then some of them are pretty average when it comes to their integrated mic preamps). If you're not satisfied with the quality of the integrated preamp, and you're sure it's the preamp (not the mic, not something else), then it's time to shop around. 3. Another reason, perhaps more subtle, is related to compression. In the majority of cases, you want to perform some compression on anything captured by a mic. Doing compression in the analog chain, before the signal hits the digital domain, allows you to use the full resolution of your digital channel, which otherwise would be wasted on high-amplitude peaks which need to be trimmed off anyway, and allows you to easily fend off digital clipping which is awful and must be avoided at all costs. That's why, in a decent setup, you will often see a compressor between the mic preamp and the sound card, configured for very gentle and transparent compression. That's also the reason why many mic preamps include compressors. There's really no digital workaround for this issue. If you're already hitting that kind of quality ceiling, you must separate the preamp / compression stages from the digital chain. That being said, for amateur recording, cards with integrated mic preamps are fine. Careful with clipping and you're going to be OK. Most amateurs are in this situation. Just don't bring the pro domain into this discussion, please. -- Florin Andrei http://florin.myip.org/

Presonus is the notable exception to the above, and one of the only firewire cards with linux support. Check the reviews in Sound on Sound or other pro engineering mags. I would honestly say that if you want to go mic->pre->card for under a grand total, they are the way to go. The pres on the presonus are *better* than on most small mixing boards by quite a bit. Of course they are not going to stack up against external dedicated pres. In that case, I'd say the FMR really nice pre is the best bet, especially combined with the RNC and RNLA ( Really Nice Compressor and Really Nice Levelling Amplifier. ) But truthfully, I don't think a sub $500 mic needs a pre better than the ones on the presonus cards. They are way better than the similar offerings from M-Audio or Edirol. Hope that is helpful Iain

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:37:35 -0700 Florin Andrei <florin(a)andrei.myip.org> wrote: Well I'd go against most of the advice on here for one simple reason. Noise pickup. The ideal situation is to have a mic with built in pre-amp, otherwise have one as close to the mic as is physically possible. The stronger the signal going to the card, and the the higher the signal level required by that card the better. Balanced would be best of course but is outside the price range of lots of people. -- Will J G

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Carlo Capocasa wrote: Thank you for your reply, that gives me enough information to go on. The purpose is to allow the students to practice, not for recording. I shall be buying a preamp today.