why is my mic so soft?

[hey]

i have a shure 55sh dynamic mic, and when i plug it in, we always have to turn it up louder, its just not as loud as my friends pg58 (i think it is i could be wrong). so im curious, anyone kno what could be causing this? its about 8 or 9 years old, could the electronics be going bad or something?

[Seafroggys]

you need a preamp.

[hey]

a new preamp? i thought preamp handles tone. call me an idiot lol i just know that in guitar amps, the power amp handles volume and preamp handles tone, so thats my logic, but if im wrong then my bad.

[Nick]

with mics you need a mic preamp

[hey]

really? ok thanks guys.

[hey]

is the preamp a replacment part that goes in the mic?

[Ethan.]

Why do you need a preamp?

I have recorded vocals straight into the soundcard. It worked. Sure a preamp would have made it sound better, but it worked. And it wasn't horrible.

[hey]

sound quality isnt my issue, and this isnt with recording. this is in general, my mic is not as loud as all other mics ive used.

[Nick]

It can be done straight as long as quality isn't an issue, especially when you're trying to record distorted guitar on an extreme budget

The preamp is a seperate bit (a.k.a. more $$$) that you plug the mic into (thus requiring more cabling...that sh!t adds up quickly)

I wouldn't worry about it, mics are all different.

[hey]

i mean its no big isse to just turn it up more when i plug my mic in, but i was just curious if somethings wrong with my mic or not.

[Seafroggys]

it could need phantom power....

[Moseph]

If there's usable signal then phantom power isn't required.

"Preamp" is short for "pre-amplifier", which essentially takes a mic level signal and increases it to line level (which makes it very easy to manipulate).

In the case of recording straight to a computer's native soundcard, they're probably not strictly necessary, but they can do a lot to avoid noise, distortion, and volume problems like the TS is mentioning here.

A cheap preamp will do little more than increase the volume of the microphone output to usable levels with (hopefully) little to no coloration of the sound. You can find that kind of preamp for a single microphone for somewhere between $60 and $100 US.

[hey]

is this something that goes inside the mic or some kind of external hardware?

[Seafroggys]

its external. Usually a rack mounted unit, that you plug your mic into, then plug an output from the preamp into the mixer - recorder - whatever.

[ygokazuki]

Well usually mixers have built-in mic preamps. Are you only turning up the channel's level? Try turning up the input gain.

[Merkaba]

Yea, your mixer should pre amp it enough. I've got an old fostex from like 94 and it has it. Be sure to check your gain on the mixer, as sometimes it will get accidentally turned down and need to be turned up.

[Aaron]

Check the trim settings aren't really low.