MIC PRE AMPS for the Home Audio Studio & Most albums by single artist ever

see Guitarist Denis Taaffe's website at http://www.dtguitar.com

MIC PRE AMPS

Mic preamps boost the signal coming from a source via microphone. Ok that is pretty basic, but it is surprising at how the quality of a mic preamp effects the overall sound of the recording. I have spent sometime looking into that and discovered that there are 2 kinds of mic preamps, or two mic preamp philosophies: 1)WIRE WITH GAIN - this is where the mic pre boosts the signal but is transparent and does not color the sound, the other 2) MIC PRE is just your mic pre with its tonal coloration and shaping, these include mic preamps with EQ,cmpression,de-essers and so on.In other words one is juts boost the signal and the other boosts and changes the tone as well.

For me, I have used the mic preamps in the Roland VS880 and VS890 recorders, these are weak and in fact can hardly be called mic preamps as they have little boosting capabillity and no phnatom power. Phantom power is used for microphones requiring power from an external source as opposed to dynamic mics that do not need any power to work.

Mixing consoles have mic preamps ,usually on each ch. in addition to an eq section which is why vintage mixing consoles are so expensive and are sought after,because they usually have amazing mic preamps and EQ sections. I started using Mackie xdr preamps which are found in the pro vlz mixers. I have a 14ch MAckie board and used the xdr preamps form it. the sound quality is very good. However, there is much better out there.I now use the preamps from a Mackie 32ch 8busss mixer and the preamps sound better than the xdr preamps yet are older. as I have mentioned before.

However, I am very curious to try some outboard mic preamps, usually they take a mic preamp and put it in a rackmount case or a 1/3 rack case. One in particularr has an outstanding reputation and that is the FMR RNC 8380. It has 2 Wire With Gain mic preamps in a 1/3 rack case. It is supposed to sound better than the mackie and better than mic preamps that cost much more. Is it true though? I don't know yet. But, I would very much like to try it out. However, it has a price of $499.00 new. Well we will see.....

I am even considering selling the mackie 8 buss console in favor of some outboard mic pre's ,but we will have to see.....I do like that board so that is premature to say definitively.

Most Albums Ever? World Record?

I have completed and released 131 albums and am completing album 132. That's a lot of albums and I guess may be more than anybody?! I certainly did not set out to do more albums than anyone, but supposedly, this may be the case. see this link where someone asked who has put out the most albums. Well, they should specify full length (over 60 minutes), during their lifetime, all original material and no rehash posthumous or greatest hits rehash hahaha. Frank Zappa had 67-80 or something like that. They mention a puento Fuentes somebody, I don't know, he had 125. So, I guess I am in there somewhere. I plan on completing and releasing a lot more albums. I guess one distinction is that they release major label albums and I release no label albums just independent.Also, after my first album, alll the rest were performed and recorded live and were improvised on the spot and I continue doing my albums this way. It is so much more fun and interesting than rehashing worked out parts Its more work and much more dangerous musically as it is easy to fall on your face and make a mistake,but it also yields some amazing musical moments. Anyway, Maybe I have a world record hahah, maybe not, its silly anyway; who really cares, but its a fun tidbit. truth be known, I hope to continue recording my Modern Rock Guitar series or albums until its not fun or inspiring or until I have nothing more to say musically. Truth is it feels Like I have just begun really. Anyway, you can own all my albums by purchasing them at http://www.dtguitar.com or at least I have audio samples of each album. I am listening to a draft of vol.132 right now. Anway, I don't rush my albums to get them completed, rather I do my best to get the best quality and theme of them.