Okay, i might have found something interesting.
Does the CA-9200 affect the waveform at all? Does it change the sound the mics recieve in anyway? Or, does it simply boost the signal? Should it work ad a preamp like this for all microphones?
Out of curiousity, instead of using my shure preamp, i plugged a dynamic vocal mic into the 9200 and line in. I recorded it. I loadedthe wave into Reaper and couldnt even see it despite having it peak at the aame point as my Shure preamp. It also lost the voices dynamic range- it sounded a lot less harsh and natural, more like I was a radio DJ with a silky smooth voice. It sounded lifeless. Its interesting because this sounds similar what happens to my vocals.
A dynamic mic AFAIK won't work with that preamp. It's a 9V preamp designed to provide plug-in power to an electret-type mic.
All preamps "affect" the sound in some way, but the 9200 is not designed to do so intentionally (i.e., by addition of certain electronics like transformers that provide known types of coloration).
It will not work with "all microphones"; it will only work with mics that require 9V plug-in power. Like Church Audio mics.
If you are recording loud shows, you really don't need the preamp at all and should just run with a simple battery box. Fewer failure points in the chain and fewer knobs to mess around with.
I thought it might simply because my Shure preamp uses the same 9V setup.
So, with this in mind, I've switched to doing a test with my CA-14's and CA-11's directly with the following setups. The microphones were about 6 feet away from the amps in the same spot, recorded simultaneously into two different M10's.
CA14, 9200, NO HPF, Mic in
CA14, 9200, NO HPF, Line In
CA14, 9200, HPF, Mic in
CA14, 9200, HPF, Line In
CA11, 9200, NO HPF, Mic in
CA11, 9200, NO HPF, Line In
CA11, 9200, HPF, Mic in
CA11, 9200, HPF, Line In
CA14, Battery Box, Mic in
CA14, Battery Box, Line In
CA11, Battery Box, Mic In
CA11, Battery Box, Line In
I used my voice amplified across my home PA system. I was wondering if you guys could interpret the results. I'll see if I can upload the samples.
I saw a trend whereby Mic In provided me with more clarity in my vocals in the CA-11's ONLY; they had more high-end frequencies and airness as opposed to a bassy low end. I have no idea why there would be a difference in this regard, unless it's the way the 9200 would modify the frequencies as it's processed.
The CA14's did not have any clarity change between the inputs. They sounded muddy (which I define has a lot of low-end instead of cutting at the 400-1000Hz range) regardless of the setup. When recorded seperately from rock instruments, this is fine because I can fix it in post. However, this cannot happen when Im pulling the PA mix. I used a frequency analyzer for both and saw that the CA-11's had more vocal cut through, unlike the CA-14's, at the 400Hz range.
The battery box versus the 9200 made no difference in any scenario.
The HPF showed me that it was indeed labelled correctly on the 9200 pre-amp (someone suggested it might not be awhile ago).
So, I'm going to test it a little more, but I've concluded a couple things so far:
- There is nothing wrong with my 9200 since it sounds like my battery box
- The Mic In and Line In treat the inputted sound differently
- While I need to do more tests, the CA-11's seem to treat the 400-1kHz vocal range with more delicacy; reproducing a sound closer to what my ear hears.
When I have time next Saturday, Im gonna set these mic pairs up simultaneously at a venue and play with the Mic In/Line In inputs.