Mic Preamp before USB Interface?

[drumandstage]

Ok, I am telling on myself, I know. I am looking at some Mic Preamps and am curious if you would use this in conjunction with a USB Interface.

It seems like a simple "Yes" as they have different functions, but at the same time, there are redundancies as well.

I have a Focusrite 2i 4 and am thinking of a pair of ART Tube MP/C's for left right instruments and also for Vocals. Or maybe a single 2 channel unit.

Opinions, experiences welcome.

[Acoustica Eric]

Most interfaces have preamps already built in, As does this one. It's got line or instrument level selector and gain knobs (pre amp right there).
You could certainly connect a pre amp in line first, like a mixing board, but there's no reason to unless you need the routing that the mixer provides.

[drumandstage]

Most interfaces have preamps already built in, As does this one. It's got line or instrument level selector and gain knobs (pre amp right there).
You could certainly connect a pre amp in line first, like a mixing board, but there's no reason to unless you need the routing that the mixer provides.

I got a tube preamp with optical compressor. I answered by own question in operation...the set up does work and yields a great sound.

[shayneoneill]

Yes and no re necessity. Most decent converters have decent pres (Focusrite particularly do) but sometimes an external pre can really do a lot to get better control over gain structure before inflicting it on the converters.

I have a pair of modded Golden Age Pre73s (Basically component level knock off of the old Neve 73s which i've modded to upgrade the transformer.) and I use them a lot with ribbon mics and bass guitars to keep some of the wilder behavior under control, sometimes (As in the case with bass) with a compressor too, before feeding them into the Focusrite. The liquid56 also has a couple of liquid channel pres on 1 & 2 , so those are pretty great too, although they are not quite the full Liquid channels in the stand alone boxes (Which do some funky magic with impedence to better emulate the original modelled pres and how they react with mics/etc).

I don't think I *need* any of these, but I enjoy the colour of the Pre73s. and their usefulness in gain staging certainly helps too.