Simple Mic pre-amp needed

[tbjhilton]

Hello all

 

I'm now teaching music in a secondary school, and I need to invest in some easy-to-use recording gear for coursework performances etc, after this year's lot were a nightmare. The school last year bought a Tascam MD350 and one of those '2U-rack-in-a-bag' jobs for it - but no mixer or preamp etc, so while it is much quicker for editing than on the walkman (which I have to use to record) I'd like to be able to plug a good stereo mic, or a pair of mics, in to it to record directly on to it.

 

I was hoping to find a cheap-ish (£100 max) 2-channel preamp in small box which I could put in the back of the rack case, which would take 2 XLR mics in, and feed these out at RCA line-level, or XLR balanced line-level, into the MD350. I've looked around at some products and I'm a bit confused - I'm not sure if they will do exactly what I want them to. I'm not fussed about a gain adjustment or anything - if there's enough gain in the pre-amp I can then just adjust the record level on the MD control.

 

Would the 'Midiman Audio Buddy' (Studiospares 360-550) do the job? doesn't have XLR in, but at least they are balanced inputs - or can anyone recommend a suitable product?

 

Cheers chaps

 

Tom

[p.k.roberts]

I'm afraid I can't find the product you mention on the Studiospares website, but a pair of these

 

http://tinyurl.com/34trgt

 

would come in under budget if Studiospares is you preferred supplier.

 

However, I really think that one of the many 'notepad' type mini mixers would serve you much better in terms of value for money and flexibility. There are simple models from Soundcraft or even (he says in hushed tones) Behringer which will come in at half your budget.

[Pete]

I was about to suggest a notepad as well,but P.K. Roberts beat me to it.

If you really want to keep it all in a rack in a bag I might suggest Behringer UltraGain and a new rack bag.Should all come in under the price of the Midiman unit in your 1st post.

[tbjhilton]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I don't really want a notepad mixer, as it's just too many knobs for kids to fiddle with - I'd be forever listening to a recording and finding it all panned to one side, or all the bass boosted, as they had fiddled in between. I have a couple of bigger mixers and so on for doing really good recordings, and what I want to achieve is an all-in-one box solution to just put down, plug in and go. The Art Micromix looks fine, if there was a 2-channel version it would be much neater, but if not then two of these would do.

 

Any more thoughts?

[Chris Beesley]

tum-te-tum :P

 

Stageline MPA-202 Spec's

 

Stageline MPA-202 Pricing

[tbjhilton]

Exactly what I was looking for, many thanks Chris - I knew I'd seen them somewhere!

 

Cheers.

[MarkPAman]

If you really want to keep it all in a rack in a bag I might suggest Behringer UltraGain and a new rack bag.

 

This will give you exactly the system I have for the same job. 4U bag / case gives room for the qwerty keyboard, pair of DT100s & 2 C3000s. I, and more importantly, my boss, are very pleased with the results we achieve with this & I've yet to find a member of staff that can't be trained to use it!

 

Having said that, we're going to try a Zoom H4 soon, as transfer to computer should be much easier.

 

Edit: Slightly off topic, but keep copies of all your recordings. Examiners have been known to lose them! <Remembers re-recording at about 6:00am then driving 80 miles to deliver a disk.>

[lightsource]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I don't really want a notepad mixer, as it's just too many knobs for kids to fiddle with - I'd be forever listening to a recording and finding it all panned to one side, or all the bass boosted, as they had fiddled in between.

 

Any more thoughts?

 

So, I don't think you are teaching them much, after all if this is your requirements for live / recorded sound, then what is the purpouse of the course? what will they learn, and what use is their knowledge within this industry ?

[MarkPAman]

So, I don't think you are teaching them much, after all if this is your requirements for live / recorded sound, then what is the purpose of the course? what will they learn, and what use is their knowledge within this industry ?

 

I can't speak for tbjhilton, but my situation requires recordings to be made of "music performance" students performing. There is no requirement for the students to make the recording themselves, it is not part of the course. Recordings are usually done by the teacher in charge, or by one of the technicians (me).

Those studying "music technology" of course, will be taught to use the equipment and recordings they have made will be sent off to the examiners.

[tbjhilton]

what will they learn

They will learn the skills to become good musicians. Mark is correct, my first post:

I'm now teaching music in a secondary school

...tells you that I am teaching music, not sound recording techniques. The coursework requires students to perform music on their chosen instrument or voice. The performances are recorded so that an external moderator can assess the work. I'm not teaching music tech, and even if I were, my second post:

I have a couple of bigger mixers and so on for doing really good recordings

... tells you that I have the resources to do 'proper' recordings when needed. What I was looking for was a simple system that could be set up and used by students as well as by me, simply to provide evidence of a performance. It will also be used to record lower school groupwork, just for evidence that they have done the work, and for reviewing it with them - not to teach them about recording.

 

Thanks for all the advice chaps. The stuff arrived on my desk today, now all up and running.