Bass roll-off, pre-amp, or neither?

[P-Man]

I have an iRiver H120, Church Audio mics, and battery box. Should I get a bass roll-off, pre-amp, or neither? How much are these? How much will my recordings improve with each? What do each do? Thanks.

[Dede2002]

I have an iRiver H120, Church Audio mics, and battery box. Should I get a bass roll-off, pre-amp, or neither? How much are these? How much will my recordings improve with each? What do each do? Thanks.

That depends. To make a long story short, with your iRiver, Church mics and  bb, you're good to go. It's not a matter of what you "should" get, but what you actually need.
Taping heavy bass, booming venues? Roll-off might be a great idea ( bass roll-off filters the amount of bass you are going to tape). Going to tape soft, acoustic type music? A preamp is an excellent idea. The preamp can be used if you're recording device has a noisy buit-in preamp. In this case, you can lower your recording's gain and use the preamp's.
Anyway, you have lots of options. Let you ears ( plus your real needs) be your judge.
Take care and have fun 

[sunjan]

I have an iRiver H120, Church Audio mics, and battery box. Should I get a bass roll-off, pre-amp, or neither? How much are these? How much will my recordings improve with each? What do each do? Thanks.

Dede is spot on.
First question: how much gain do you usually have to add in the Iriver to get good levels?
Assuming you're using Safety Clip, at how many +dB does the safety feature flatten out?

For most of us, the gain on the Iriver is a bit weak even with a bb, and you might end up adding digital gain, which is a bad thing. Better to get an external pre like the 9100. Regarding bass roll-off, you should ask Church about this in conjunction with his mics. But personally, I rather try to "regulate" the bass levels by finding the sweet spot in the venue, and move away from the area where the bass is too prominent.

[Dede2002]

I have an iRiver H120, Church Audio mics, and battery box. Should I get a bass roll-off, pre-amp, or neither? How much are these? How much will my recordings improve with each? What do each do? Thanks.

Dede is spot on.
First question: how much gain do you usually have to add in the Iriver to get good levels?
Assuming you're using Safety Clip, at how many +dB does the safety feature flatten out?

For most of us, the gain on the Iriver is a bit weak even with a bb, and you might end up adding digital gain, which is a bad thing. Better to get an external pre like the 9100. Regarding bass roll-off, you should ask Church about this in conjunction with his mics. But personally, I rather try to "regulate" the bass levels by finding the sweet spot in the venue, and move away from the area where the bass is too prominent.

Yep  .

[deadheadcorey]

go with church audio preamp 9100.... that would work perfect in your chain....

[junkbondking]

go with church audio preamp 9100.... that would work perfect in your chain....

and you know this because church audio was one of many folks on this board you attempted to rip off ?

[dorrcoq]

go with church audio preamp 9100.... that would work perfect in your chain....

and you know this because church audio was one of many folks on this board you attempted to rip off ?

[DisturbedPyro]

I have an iRiver H120, Church Audio mics, and battery box. Should I get a bass roll-off, pre-amp, or neither? How much are these? How much will my recordings improve with each? What do each do? Thanks.

i have the same rig except its a iriver h320. i record loud rock/metal shows and i was told with my rig i wouldnt need a preamp. im really new to this and dont really know whats up but, im just telling you what i was told. all i can say is ive been very happy with my results. good luck, what kind of shows are you taping?

[SmokinJoe]

Are your church mics cards or omnis?  If cards, you don't need bass roll off for any kind of music.  If omnis, it's a good idea for loud thumpy music.

[P-Man]

The mics are Church Audio cardoids.
I mainly record rock shows, and occasionally acoustic.
What preamp would be recommended?

[Arni99]

With your church cardioids and a battery box and the iriver H120 you don´t really need a preamp.
With rockbox set the gain to +15 for left and right channel when taping amplified loud concerts and use "safety-clip".
For more acoustic type of music set the gain to +20 or +24db(maximum analog gain) and use "safety-clip" which will lower levels if they were set too high initially.
"Safety-clip" NEVER boost levels. It ONLY lowers them automatically when clipping might occur.

Once I used a preamp and overloaded the analog line-in of my iriver H120 because I used too much gain from the external preamp.