Here is my current rig, pretty minamilist by many's standards:
AT ES943/C's > Church Audio ST-9100 > iRiver H100 (Rockboxed)
I used to have the AT's with a mini-stereo termination, battery box, and D7. I went to the iRiver, mini-xlr terminated AT's, and Church preamp in one fell swoop. Ever since then I have made a couple of recordings that have a lot of distortion, especially on bass drum. With my previous setup, this did not happen.
I'm convinced that the problem concerns having two level controls that I have to ride, the preamp and the recorder. I bet I am sending too hot of a signal from the preamp, so even though my levels are fine at the recorder, it's basically recording a distorted signal. Does that sound right?
I am about to chunk the preamp and go back to a simple battery box. I don't tape that much, and when I do it's usually stealth and chances are good I'm the only taper. So, very dissapointing to go through the hassle and then have an unlistenable recording.
I did have one thought, though, and wanted to see if this makes sense. What if I set the level to max on the iRiver, and then contolled the recording level with *just* the preamp? Is this what I should have been doing all along? It seems like this would simplify the recording process and hopefully address the problems. Make sense?
Any words of wisdom are appreciated!