Microphone preamplifier advice

[Porsche_maniak]

Hi there.
I have a mid priced dynamic microphone and when plugged in bad or good sound cards the result is the same.
When I am too close to the microphone I hear bad wind pops(i know about the pop-filters) and when far the background hissing is really noticeable.
I want to have clear sound of my voice with no background hiss.Of course I am not talking about super duper studio version,simply because I don't have the budged or not thinking to put much in it at all.
So I was wondering what the preamplifer does ? I guess it increases the signal with no increase of the hiss (so in theory the volume will be louder and it should be reduced,which means that the hiss will be almost or totally gone).

I was wondering if actually a cheap audio speaker system with karaoke option would work ? I saw that they have mic1 and mic2 stereo 3.5 jacks.So I will put the microphone in one of these jacks and the connect the output jacks from the speakers with the line-in of the pc.

Any thoughts?
Thanks

Porsche_maniak Reviewed by Porsche_maniak on 18th Nov 2012. Microphone preamplifier advice Hi there. I have a mid priced dynamic microphone and when plugged in bad or good sound cards the result is the same. When I am too close to the microphone I hear bad wind pops(i know about the pop-filters) and when far the background hissing is really noticeable. I want to have clear sound of my voice with no background hiss.Of course I am not talking about super duper studio version,simply because I don't have the budged or not thinking to put much in it at all. So I was wondering what the Rating: 5

[NordicNode]

Amplifiers are generally split into two parts. Preamp and power amp.
The preamp is the signal processing part that lets you plugin in additional sources such as tuners, CD players, etc. It may or may not let you fiddle with treble and bass settings (depending on the preamp).

The power amp drives the speakers. Unless you have a passive preamp (one that has a power supply built in), you will need a power amp with your preamp. If you do have a passive preamp, that could be part of the reason your sound quality is degraded. Separating the power from the preamp allows for better signal processing resulting in clearer sound quality.

In most cases, you can get decent, clear quality from a microphone if you use the right type of mic and have the right sort of housing/stand for it. Quite a few people are unaware that there are different types of microphones used for different needs, so the fact you know that makes it easier.

The most commonly used are Dynamic and Condenser microphones. Dynamic are generally cheaper and less responsive, they do handle live recording quite well (especially if you want to use it in a studio environment with instruments that have a high attack level such as drums) but for most needs they're alright.

Condenser microphones are generally geared more towards the professional user. They're much more responsive, the quality is ten-fold better, and they often have high-pass filters, bass roll-off control, etc.

As I mentioned about the housing, I use a Condenser mic, a spit guard and a custom built rig to house the stand/mic in. It's a simple stand that lets the microphone sit inside an enclosed space with soundproofing around it. I've got a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium soundcard (which made a huge difference in the production of music, not sure it'd help much in the recording stages tthough).

When I'm recording, all I need to do is capture the noise print (leave a 3 second gap at the start when you record so you can get a good, quiet sample) and apply it to the entire sound capture. 99% of the time the quality is crystal clear.

All in all I think I spent less than ?100. Hope this helps you decide.