For discussion about setting up your studio and advice on the gear and equipment within it.
By terry towelling Sun Jan 21, 2018 7:47 am
Stanley, you have a mixer (which as you well know has a quite a few preamps) and you have powered speakers. So plug your mpc and CD tv, mics etc into the preamps on your mixer and plug the powered speakers into the outs. But you already knew you could do that didn’t you?
By 6/8 Stanley Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:12 pm
I haven't used that mixer for a long time. There's nothing wrong with it but it's got the ins and outs to an 8-track plugged in and not much room for anything else. Due to it's location it would be a big hassle to move those cables around so I'm doing something else for the stuff I mentioned and keeping the mixer as is until I need it for the 8-track. It's close to the stove so I'm keeping it covered so dirt doesn't get in.
By 6/8 Stanley Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:20 pm
I think I was looking at this wrong. A hifi type preamp is made for running tuner / MPC etc. to power amp or powered speakers. But isn't that the wrong kind of preamp for recording with microphone or acoustic/electric instrument into MPC ? Most of the high-end vintage preamps are set up to record from various sources, and some even have balanced mic inputs on the front panel and separate tone and volume controls for each channel, but haven't seen any newer/cheaper ones like that.

Seems like a pro audio type microphone preamp would be better for that. Two audio ins and outs, tone or EQ, gain and volume controls would be plenty.
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By tapedeck Tue Jan 23, 2018 10:47 pm
yes, and there are plenty of new and old options.

i thought you were getting off on the quirkiness of using this gear not really as intended.

for you, a good mixer / preamp / dj mixer would be perfect. id go with a good dj mixer, tweak gain + eq, and use that.

but since you said yer dj mixer is tied up in yer 8-track, i feel like things i say arent necessarily relevant.
By 6/8 Stanley Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:51 pm
tapedeck wrote:i thought you were getting off on the quirkiness of using this gear not really as intended.


Yes and no. Using gear not as intended to save space. I saw an ad for a mic pre that said it was also being used in the store with good results as preamp for the music system. That sounds OK but don't remember what it was and couldn't find it again.

All the mic pre's I can find are either $100 new or over a thousand new or used.

I found a little cheap tube mic pre I forgot I had. Maybe I can hook the electric bira to the lil mic pre, run that to the aux input on a hifi type preamp (to use the EQ controls) and run aux outs on the hifi pre to the record ins on the MPC. Would that work, or would it kill some gear in that chain ?

Trying to find a SMALL hifi preamp with good EQ, - no luck .
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By tapedeck Mon Jan 29, 2018 4:04 pm
get any mixer with mic inputs, that will have pre's and an eq.

use a dj mixer - it will have pres and an eq.

do a google shopping search for mic pre <$250 and you get a lot of options. i can't vouch for how good they are but again, if you add in just about every mixer ever made, you've got a LOT of good options for $100 or less.
By 6/8 Stanley Mon Jan 29, 2018 7:43 pm
I'll look for one with a good EQ. I saw some used rack-mount 15 and 30 band EQ's at a music store couple days ago for under $50, don't know how good they are. Also saw a vintage hifi EQ online. All that stuff is big though. A DJ mixer with good parametric EQ would be perfect. Getting the bira to sound good through the mic might take a good EQ. It's got a heavy wood base, and the mics inside pick up the deep sound from the wood more than the high sound from the keys. The wood sound is nice but the highs need to be brought out more, and the sound of clothes or hands rubbing against the wood need to be removed.


Bought a 1980 preamp online last night to run MPC, CD player, TV and FM tuner audio outs to the Boses. Hope it works. I googled the question about using a hifi pre for a mic preamp. One response was "you can also drive a car with your feet but why would you want to do it ?".

The MPC2500 manual says for Record input left and right: "1/4 inch stereo phone x 2, balanced -40dBu, input impedance 11k ohms; max input level +10dBu". Translation for technically challenged ?
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By tapedeck Mon Jan 29, 2018 7:56 pm
thats just a technical description, almost anything you get that isn't a power amp is going to meet those requirements. its saying, dont run a power amp speaker output into the line-level of the mpc, and also it will handle a balanced signal fine if that matters to you (it really shouldn't).

i do think yer making this more difficult than it needs to be. almost any old mixer (not even dj mixer unless you need the rca ins + phono pre) will work for you. yea you might specifically need an extra eq for such a specific source (yer bira), but even then you could filter that in the mpc if needed.
im not sure ive ever seen a dj mixer specifically with a parametric eq except the new model 1 ... yall drop knowledge if im missing one, but parametric is not something you usually see on a dj mixer, moreso on a regular mixer.
By 6/8 Stanley Thu Feb 01, 2018 5:33 am
There is a lot of used stuff out there. EQ's seem to be cheap. Maybe with all the computer eq's some hardware is getting sold. Found a 2003 5-band mono parametric with good reviews for about $150 with shipping. From all the reading last night I think it would be perfect for the bira. Don't know if I'd use it for anything else unless I tried to mic my djembe. Probably wouldn't do that since I bought some djembe samples etc. for the MPC.

The PEQ is pro audio, says it's made for sound reinforcement, audio studios and broadcast. One line in the manual scares me, it says "The balanced output stage uses ..... high-current line drivers. With this design extremely long lines may be driven with impunity". That's the output that would be going to record in on the MPC or the Aux in on my new/old hifi preamp. Both of those boxes are supposed to take line level inputs so I guess it's OK as long as I turn everything down before hooking it up. Dunno though. I want the only smoke around to come from my pipe.
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By tapedeck Thu Feb 01, 2018 9:02 pm
its just saying you can run long lines - that is what balanced helps with. this is why balanced doesn't really matter for a lot of people, but people get hung up on it anyway. it really matters for very long runs.

you will be fine.
By 6/8 Stanley Sat Feb 03, 2018 3:24 am
Thanks.

Those 80's digital graphic EQ's make a great light show for a hifi set. Watched some YouTube about them, and learned how to make a good record sound horrible with EQ. Expensive then, cheap now. Not very useful to me though. Ordered the 1998 Rane PE-17 parametric instead.
By 6/8 Stanley Sun Apr 18, 2021 8:18 pm
Dug this up for update. Soon after last post got a Kenwood Basic C2 preamp, AIWA stereo tuner R22, and a Rane parametric EQ. All from 80's except Rane from 90's. Soundcraft compact 4 mixer from 2005.

All used and very cheap from ebay except the Rane was $30 used from sam ash. Nothing they raved about on gearsluts but fortunately it all works and sounds good to me. The Kenwood has lots of stereo inputs on the back and a switch to select. Got everything for about 1/3 of what that pretty $800 Marantz cost.