Dedicated Preamp or Directly into Your Soundcard?

I've gotten this question a couple times, so I figured it was time to throw some equipment at the problem.

Should you plug your mic directly into your soundcard (or mixer), or should you invest in a dedicated preamp?

The answer is "yes".

Either.

Correct.

Let's take a listen!
For today's experiment, we're going to use my M-Audio Solaris because it's a decent budget condenser microphone, and it's become one of my favorite work horse microphones.

The two preamps we're going to compare it with are the Behringer T1953, which I've had for a while now...

...and, an ART Tube PAC, which I've only just recently acquired.

To keep everything as neutral as possible, I'm recording into my Firewire 410.


All recordings were done 6 inches from the mic's diaphragm, and have not been edited (unless noted) accept for compression to 320Kbps MP3 for streaming (initial recording were done @ 24/96).
The PAC was used low threshold with 3:1 compression.

Solaris direct to FW410 (very quiet):

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Solaris direct to FW410 Normalized (loud):

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Solaris with Behringer T1953 (loud):

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Solaris with Art Tube PAC (loud):

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OK, so what can we glean?
Well, none of these sound "bad" to me. I prefer the sound of the PAC, it's a little fuller than the direct to soundcard, but I still feel like that sounds like me, natural.
The T1953 sounds "hotter" or "louder" (odd as it doesn't have a compressor like the PAC), but it adds a slightly unnatural timbre or edge to my voice. It's a subtle texture that's not unpleasant, but I don't feel that's what I really sound like. Also the T1953 adds a bit more noise to the chain than the PAC.
The direct to soundcard is the cleanest of the group, but is also the plainest to me. It's not bad, just vanilla, and we all know that vanilla is the best "base" ice cream. I think this recording would probably be the easiest to EQ and mix in front of music on a commercial.

As with so much of what we do, if you're already working a mic you like with a good soundcard, then adding a preamp (especially ones like my budget preamps) isn't going to bring an earth shaking difference to your recordings. It can make editing easier however as it instantly brings up the level of your recordings, giving you a nice hot signal to work with, but it can also make editing harder if your preamp is noisy.

For us VO people, I can only recommend buying a dedicated Pre if you've compared a few, and you've picked one out that compliments your mic and soundcard in accentuating the qualities of your voice you MOST want people to hear.

And of course, everything in this article can be purchased through SOME AUDIO STORE, LOL!
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Some Audio Guy Mail: "Speech to Text?"

So for the couple months that this blog has been up, I've been getting mail. Most of it has been in an effort to make my woe-fully undersized genitalia bigger (god bless spam filters), but every now and then a decent question does actually pop up.
I used to just answer the question directly, but I realized (while hunting for things to write about), that I could use those questions for posts.
I know, right? I'm pretty much the smartest person I know... sigh ...

So anywho, the first email to succumb to this treatment is from N.A.:

"Morning ! I was looking on the various web pages for a decent "Speech toText" program.. And came across your blog from a Dig story on BitTorrents.. I was wondering if you knew of any programs out there(obviously free is preferable) any info would be appreciated.. Thanks..N"

Well N, first off, thanks for the question. I would narrow your search down a bit, maybe try something more specific like "Speech Recognition" or "Dictation Software" or "Free Voice Recognition".

There are two main (and for now still separate) "paths" to interacting with computer with your voice. Talking to your computer and having your computer talk to you. The more recent advances have been in "Text to Speech" or "TTS" technologies, and there has been some really exciting work in getting samples of voices and slicing up those samples to form any number of other words, even at the consumer level. Some day I'll be able to make James Earl Jones say ANYTHING I WANT!!! MOOO-HA-HA!!!

*Ahem*

What seems to be moving slower is voice/speech recognition. There is of course some great work going on with the Dragon folks, and some of the Microsoft One-Note voice recognition (built into XP tablet edition and several versions of Vista) is compelling, but neither are anywhere near Star Trek level utility (I know I still rate everything by ST:TNG ... NERD).

As for free, well that gets even trickier. Most of what I can find (especially under say a BSD license) has more of an academic or engineering slant. It's usually raw code designed to be inserted into an already established product to add function as opposed to a ready to go stand alone piece of software. Carnegie Mellon's Sphinx is a perfect example of this.

So I know that doesn't really "answer" your question, but hopefully I've delivered enough information to at least help you get a little farther.

And, if any of my 30 or so readers have any additional info, PLEASE drop us a comment. Always appreciated!