Topic: Help--MixPre-6 with 2 pre's (FP24, MixPre-D)--Gain & Outputs

[SMsound]

After an extensive shootout, I found that a classical singer I'm recording much prefers the pre's in my MixPre-D to the MixPre-6 (picked them out on 8 different blind level-matched A/B tests on multiple matched pairs of mics/cables---really surprised me!)

Questions:
(1) What's the best way to connect at least 2 external pre's (MixPre-D + FP24) to my MixPre-6 at the same time?
(2) What signal level do I want to keep the singers at on the preamp?  How about on the MixPre-6? (I have always shot for peaks at -12, but the pre's seem like they can take a hotter signal).

I tried:
- MixpPre-6 all channels set to:  0 Gain, Line-In (ch. 1-4) or Aux (ch. 5-6)
- Turned on 1kHz 0dBu tone oscillator on the MixPre-D and the FP24:

FP24 Balanced. XLR-Out to MixPre-6 XLR...................... -21 dBfs on MixPre-6
FP24 Unbal. Tape-Out to MixPre-6 1/8" Aux-In............... -36 dBfs on MixPre-6
FP24 Unbal. Tape-Out to MixPre-6 XLR (w/splitter)......... -36 dBfs onMixPre-6

MixpPre-D Balanced XLR-Out to MixPre-6 XLR................ -18 dBfs on MixPre-6
MixpPre-D Unbal. Tape-Out to MixPre-6 1/8" Aux-In........ -40 dBfs on MixPre-6
MixpPre-D Unbal. Tape-Out to MixPre-6 XLR (w/splitter).. -38 dBfs on MixPre-6
(Didn't try the MixPre-D's extra unbalanced Mini-XLR-Out)

[SMsound]

I talked to someone at Sound Devices today. They recommended using the balanced XLR-out's on the Pre's with XLR-F to TRS 1/4" cables into the MixPre-6's combo jacks (assuming I don't need them for other inputs). The TRS connectors are useful in this case, as the MixPre-6's combo jacks are not wired to carry phantom power to TRS jacks (they only give phantom to XLR's, just like some other MFG's), so using them here prevents accidentally adding phantom power to the outputs of the preamps.

I also realized when I was talking to them that the MixPre-D and FP24 have meters in dBu, but MixPre-6 is in dBfs (even though the MixPre-6 manual uses dBu's throughout---confused yet?). So, when I did a practice run the other day, I was running my external preamps way cold. Interesting that the singer preferred them to the MixPre-6's transformerless pre's.

Now, if I could just find some low-profile 12" 90° XLR-F to 90° TRS snakes instead of the extra 50' long snakes I had on hand to connect the units...

[DSatz]

Redco (www.redco.com) is a company that will wire up very high-quality cables to spec, including "snake"-type multi-channel cables. I've had nothing but good experiences with them. There are also people on this board who do such work.