Awesome. I got my R-9 fixed, ordered a mixpre, and I've just started using it. God I love this thing. I don't even really know what I'm doing yet and it already sounds a million times better than my last set up. Thanks everyone for the advice!
Some blissfully stupid questions to make sure I'm maximizing my use of this stuff:
- I assume the mixpre should plug into the Line In jack and NOT the microphone jack on the R-9? Both work, but the leveling is different in each situation (with the mic jack, I have to set the levels pretty low on both the R-9 and mixpre, with the input jack I have to increase them a lot). What's the difference between the two? This is probably a really dumb question but, ah well.
- Phantom or Battery? I've been going with phantom, but I'm curious if there's an advantage to using the battery (other than preserving the mixpre's own battery life, I imagine).
- I assume I don't have to touch the tape return stuff ever? I can't quite figure out what it's for, so I'm assuming it doesn't apply to what I'm doing.
- Limiters/High Pass Filters...I'm thinking I don't touch these either (for relatively quiet environmental/ambient recordings)?
Last but not least, things are running beautifully for the situations I've run into so far, but for really quiet situations, I'm not sure I'll get enough gain. What's the most efficient way to set levels for quiet situations (maybe I should just use the mic jack)? I think I read somewhere that the R-09 input level should be set between 8-10 - is this true for all situations? And for louder situations, would it make sense to set the R-9 at an even lower level and let the mixpre do most of the work?
Sorry for my dumb (yet enthusiastic) questions - any tips will help guide me in all my recording experiments. Horray, recording is fun!