Mic Stage Electronics?

H

Hardcore Punk

New member
My friend recently gave out his stuff and gave me his mic and preamp and never used it.
well, i'm trying to figure out how to use it. i thought since a have a 4x12 stereo guitar cab i could connect it to one side after the preamp to make a PA so to speak. well i did. turned the gain up. and i can barely hear myself.
i'm new and unknown to the world of mic electronics, what am i doing wrong, or what do i need to get to make my voice loud on my cab.
 
Well, first of all quit using your guitar cab as a P.A. speaker! It does not have the right sound for vocals. You need something with a tweeter or horn in it to properly hear all the frequencies in the human voice. A preamp goes BEFORE the amp (that's what the term means) The correct way to set it up is to go from the mic into the preamp then into a mixing board then into a poweramp then to a pair of P.A. speakers. If you have a powered P.A. head than you can go from the preamp into a channel on the powered head, then into the speakers. The mic preamp is generally used in recording situations to give the mic a better signal-to-noise ratio and add some specific tonal flavor to the mic. This only slightly increases the mics signal and it still needs to be put into an amplifier. The best way to do this is as I mentioned; mic into preamp into channel of P.A.
You are actually better off just using a good dynamic microphone (shure SM58) straight into a channel on the P.A. The P.A. itself has a preamp on each channel and E.Q. to allow you to adjust the tonal quality of the mic. A powered P.A. has a built in poweramp that will amplify the mic signal up to the level that it can be heard through the P.A. speakers.
 
Well, first of all quit using your guitar cab as a P.A. speaker! It does not have the right sound for vocals. You need something with a tweeter or horn in it to properly hear all the frequencies in the human voice. A preamp goes BEFORE the amp (that's what the term means) The correct way to set it up is to go from the mic into the preamp then into a mixing board then into a poweramp then to a pair of P.A. speakers. If you have a powered P.A. head than you can go from the preamp into a channel on the powered head, then into the speakers. The mic preamp is generally used in recording situations to give the mic a better signal-to-noise ratio and add some specific tonal flavor to the mic. This only slightly increases the mics signal and it still needs to be put into an amplifier. The best way to do this is as I mentioned; mic into preamp into channel of P.A.
You are actually better off just using a good dynamic microphone (shure SM58) straight into a channel on the P.A. The P.A. itself has a preamp on each channel and E.Q. to allow you to adjust the tonal quality of the mic. A powered P.A. has a built in poweramp that will amplify the mic signal up to the level that it can be heard through the P.A. speakers.
 
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