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Preamp: absolutely required?
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Ezra
Member
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:21 pm Posts: 66
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Preamp: absolutely required?
Greetings.
I have a stick on order, so I can't yet test this out; hence the following question.
I see many threads about preamps. Is the stick's output so low that a preamp is necessary? For example, in a studio, would the following signal chain be valid:
Stick > DI box > mic preamp > DAW.
Or is a preamp for the stick required prior to the DI box?
TIA, -e.
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 7:32 am |
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stickNYC
Site Donor
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:34 am Posts: 89 Location: NYC
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
Which pickup housing did you go with? The Active block or the active mode on the Railboard are already pre-d, even in mono-mode. For the passive blocks, without a proper instrument pre, your noise floor can become an issue. Especially if you are going directly to a mic-pre with a different gain structure...consider impedance matching as well. Direct box, or a pair of them (stereo) would help, but again the dynamic control would be impacted.
_________________ Tony Rodriguez - http://www.sticknyc.com
SG12-bamboo Grand-graphite Railboard-mirror protoype Railboard-Stick bass protoype Alto-paduak Alto-tarara Standard Stick-graphite Standard Stick-vintage Stick bass-bamboo NsStick-ash & chechen
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:39 am |
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AnDroiD
Elite Contributor
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:42 pm Posts: 2536 Location: Jersey
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
If the mic pre is a mixer that should do it. Esp. if it has USB. You don't mention which p.u. the Stickup is the only one that may need a boost. What about tone shaping - or are you just relying on DAW plug-ins.
_________________ Peace, Marty "The present day composer refuses to die" -Edgard Varese
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:43 am |
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WerkSpace
Elite Contributor
Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 11:19 pm Posts: 1799 Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
Something to think about - is the latency of your DAW. It sucks when you don't hear the notes immediately when you tap the strings. I'm curious if anyone has tried the TrickFish Trilobite? https://www.trickfishamps.com/shop/trilobite/Ezra wrote: Greetings.
I have a stick on order, so I can't yet test this out; hence the following question.
I see many threads about preamps. Is the stick's output so low that a preamp is necessary? For example, in a studio, would the following signal chain be valid:
Stick > DI box > mic preamp > DAW.
Or is a preamp for the stick required prior to the DI box?
TIA, -e.
_________________ #404 Stick - (1978) Angico hard wood. #6460 Railboard - Black with glow inlays.
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:03 pm |
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gpoorman
Elite Contributor
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:45 pm Posts: 1733 Location: Leelanau County, MI
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
Ezra wrote: I see many threads about preamps. Is the stick's output so low that a preamp is necessary? For example, in a studio, would the following signal chain be valid:
Stick > DI box > mic preamp > DAW.
Or is a preamp for the stick required prior to the DI box? Hmmmmm. A lot of "it depends". Generally a Stick needs a preamp. Even if you have an ACTV-2 pickup, you probably want an additional preamp for added tone shaping. With that said though, there are plenty of options. For example, I use a pair of SansAmp DIs that are also preamps so my setup is Stick > DI > DAW With that said, the main reason I use the DIs is because I like the way they sound. I could just as easily use a software preamp in which case I could scale down to Stick > DAW. This ... of course ... assumes that the audio interface I use to run my Stick into my computer has instrument level input.
_________________ Glenn http://www.121normal.com
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:26 pm |
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greg
Multiple Donor
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:07 pm Posts: 7088 Location: Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
The best reason I can think of to use a preamp is to have the best basic tone BEFORE you do any digital processing.
I recommend the StepABout for passive Stick pickups. It sounds great, has an incredibly low noise floor, very nice variable midrange control and a versatile routing matrix and headphone amp as well.
_________________ Happy tapping, greg Schedule an online Stick lesson
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 8:04 pm |
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rclere
Multiple Donor
Joined: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:53 am Posts: 1518 Location: Seattle, WAq
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
What Greg said!
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Fri Jun 04, 2021 7:11 am |
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Ezra
Member
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2021 12:21 pm Posts: 66
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
stickNYC wrote: Which pickup housing did you go with? The Active block or the active mode on the Railboard are already pre-d, even in mono-mode. For the passive blocks, without a proper instrument pre, your noise floor can become an issue. Especially if you are going directly to a mic-pre with a different gain structure...consider impedance matching as well. Direct box, or a pair of them (stereo) would help, but again the dynamic control would be impacted. This will be for a Grand Railboard. The Villex is apparently horribly back-ordered, and the EMG option isn't there yet. I told them to use whichever one is available first. No estimate as to the arrival/availability of either PU. -e.
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Sat Jun 05, 2021 8:18 am |
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AnDroiD
Elite Contributor
Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 12:42 pm Posts: 2536 Location: Jersey
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
Do you play electric bass or guitar, and are you using pre-amps/modelers/effects devices already? You might be set already see what happens when you get your Stick and plug in. Or is Money Burning A Hole In Your Pocket? (what my Dad always said to me) I use a PODX3 on two different Sticks w/ 3 different pu's...Stickup, ACTV2 & PASV4 and I just vary the db knob for how hot (or not) the pu's are. The Stickup is the lowest, but the Villex (PASV4) is WAY hotter than the ACTV2. But if you are looking for The Hot Set-Up there is a lot of options for the Stick player - just check out the myriad of equipment posts. And keep asking questions - we like to jibber-jabber. As I said I'm still using a ten-year-old device thru a Mackie mixer (pre-USB) with a ZOOM H2 as USB interface and...it works. But if I had expendable income....
_________________ Peace, Marty "The present day composer refuses to die" -Edgard Varese
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Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:41 am |
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gpoorman
Elite Contributor
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:45 pm Posts: 1733 Location: Leelanau County, MI
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Re: Preamp: absolutely required?
I should also point out here (and apologies but I do frequently run across people who don't realize this) that if you're running into a combo amp, you are already pre-amping.
_________________ Glenn http://www.121normal.com
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Sun Jun 06, 2021 9:04 am |
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