Problem Recording With A Preamp Into My MD's Line In (Help)

[thierryhenry]

Alright, I went to Modest Mouse tonight to record. Everything seemed to go fine, I was in a good place @ the venue (right behind the soundboard), mics in hat, venue was a tad bassy but i didn't worry because I had my Preamp this time. Anyway, I finish up get in my car to listen, and the recording is HORRIBLY BASSY. The first show I taped, I plugged my microphone into the "Mic In" and had my level @ like 2, and I still got bass feedback, but not even as much as I did running this time through the Line In. It's odd.

My Microphone: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3281&item=5713312136

The mic sounds unbelievably good, that's why I'm wondering why this recording turned out so distorted and bassy. Anyway, I think I had everything hooked up correctly. My preamp is a http://www.visivoxtechnologies.com/products.htm, and I connected the line input to the correct spot and had my microphone and everything correct I assume. My Line In recording level was at about 15 (goes up to 30), and the decibel's seemed to stay constant in the middle (which is what i want correct?) Is 15 way way too much when using Line In, is that why it is so distorted? I have no idea what went wrong, I thought a preamp would help, all it did was seem to hurt...
Can anyone help me?

Thanks.

Joe.

[thierryhenry]

Bump.

[Fisherking]

I´m not a expert but I used a similar setup and the signal itself got to hot for the MD to handle. It didn´t really matter if the levels only got halfway up, the tape got distorted anyway.

On my battbox/preamp I got a -20db option so I switched to that and I was fine.

It says that yor mics has -40db sensitivity but maybe the music was to loud anyway. Hopefully someone else could explain it to you better.

[thierryhenry]

Yeah, cause I really don't understand it. And it seems at the concert where I used "Mic In," the music seemed alot louder, than it was last night, and yet the Mic In recording although a few times is a tad bassy is nowhere as badly distorted as the setup I did last night...It's quite odd.

[dklein]

How about a sample?  Not sure if you're talking lots of bass or some kind of overload.  Modest Mouse would probably push you past the mic limit of 110 dB.

[thierryhenry]

Ok after some experimenting, I transfered the Modest Mouse tape into Soundforge and found that there was only sound coming from the left channel, (which was overly distorted and bassy). I figured this could either be a bad connection into the preamp, or something with my microphone (an overload or something). I tested the Giant Squid's (my other mics) with my stereo @ full blast, and noticed the same exact product with sound only being produced in the left channel. So I guess we can rule out of the options of either of my microphones being defective (also the fact that I've used both of them for about 5-6 Mic In recordings with have turned out fine other than the apparent reasons of using Mic In). Anyway, the battery box is a Visivox, like I've said, and so I figure now I must get a real BB from SP. Which do you recommend 6 or 1?

[Sean Gallemore]

the one is errr....more structurally sound

try to get another BB to see if it's your mic>BB connection causing the problem

[thierryhenry]

Got a SP-SBSP-6 last night, and new cables, everything is perfect, and the Walkmen tape sounds perfect from last night.

[George]

Got a SP-SBSP-6 last night, and new cables, everything is perfect, and the Walkmen tape sounds perfect from last night.

Kudos 

[CHURCH-AUDIO]

Alright, I went to Modest Mouse tonight to record. Everything seemed to go fine, I was in a good place @ the venue (right behind the soundboard), mics in hat, venue was a tad bassy but i didn't worry because I had my Preamp this time. Anyway, I finish up get in my car to listen, and the recording is HORRIBLY BASSY. The first show I taped, I plugged my microphone into the "Mic In" and had my level @ like 2, and I still got bass feedback, but not even as much as I did running this time through the Line In. It's odd.

My Microphone: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3281&item=5713312136

The mic sounds unbelievably good, that's why I'm wondering why this recording turned out so distorted and bassy. Anyway, I think I had everything hooked up correctly. My preamp is a http://www.visivoxtechnologies.com/products.htm, and I connected the line input to the correct spot and had my microphone and everything correct I assume. My Line In recording level was at about 15 (goes up to 30), and the decibel's seemed to stay constant in the middle (which is what i want correct?) Is 15 way way too much when using Line In, is that why it is so distorted? I have no idea what went wrong, I thought a preamp would help, all it did was seem to hurt...
Can anyone help me?

Thanks.

Joe.

Hi there thanks for the good coments on my mics I think the problem is that the VISIVOX pre is too hot for your line input what we do is our preamps have two settings one is -27 db one is +27 db the -27 db is for recording loud shows we strongly suggest using a preamp that has a padded input for recording live shows in order to prevent overloading the line input of your preamp remember that most line inputs are -20 db to -20 db we give you an additional 7 db of headroom at -27 db talk to Jon at Visivox and see if he can mod your preamp so that it has a negitive db setting around -25 to 27 db I am sure he can if not you can always purchase one from us but try talking to Jon at visivox hes a nice guy and really knows his stuff his preamp is geared towards his mic but it will work with other mics as well but not mine oh well if you are still having problems let me know you can email me thru my ebay store

[tibbsa]

Alright, I went to Modest Mouse tonight to record. Everything seemed to go fine, I was in a good place @ the venue (right behind the soundboard), mics in hat, venue was a tad bassy but i didn't worry because I had my Preamp this time. Anyway, I finish up get in my car to listen, and the recording is HORRIBLY BASSY. The first show I taped, I plugged my microphone into the "Mic In" and had my level @ like 2, and I still got bass feedback, but not even as much as I did running this time through the Line In. It's odd.

Well, I see I'm not the only one to run into this little problem with this setup (Church Audio omnis + Visivox pre-amp).    I've had no problem with this setup at quieter shows, but haven't (yet) made a superb tape at loud shows.

Which pre-amp do you have, though?  The one I have has a lo and a high gain option, which might help me in future... I have only been to two (loud-ish) concerts with this setup, and both times I was stupid and didn't bother dropping to low gain.  I got distortion in both cases.  The results in the second case were passable, but I have to do some testing to see if the problem is the mics or something else. 

You could always do the poor-man's-attenuator trick, and go to Radio Shack and pick up an inline headphone volume control, and drop that between the mic and the pre-amp...  but if the problem is overloading of the mics themselves, then that won't help much.