I got one of these last week. Hooked my Lewitt 940 to this and recorded an artist over the weekend we was blown away. This will replace my universal audio preamp easy!!!! Good review just chiming in for the musicians.
Just one thing, you should use TRS to TRS instead of that TRS to XLR cable. Since youre using XLR plugged into your interfaces front input, your interface is expecting a microphone level input and not line level input that you want to have. This actually makes your interface peak even though DBX doesnt. Try it, makes it even better experience. There was this one big audio TH-camr talking about it, on a video about plugging preamp into a preamp.
I believe the correct setup is to go out of the DBX into the LINE input (using TRS-TRS) of the Focusrite. Even with the gain knob at 0, the Focusrite will boost the signal if you use the Mic/XLR input. The signal out of the DBX should be line level. Ideally you'd use an interface with a RETURN to bypass the preamps altogether. Hope this helps! Cheers.
Thank you so much. I have the gain turned completely down on my Focusrite currently so that it does not further boost and distort the signal. I will look more into this, thank you very much. :)
Sanii Makhalima nice! It is always great to connect with people about these types of things. I don’t always have someone to talk to about this side of my life. :)
Hello Zach, nice setup! By the way, can I ask what kind of rack that you are using for the dbx 286s? Is that made of wood or aluminum? Thanks for answering.
Turn the output gain -3 db check out your volume at start and at end of video yor getting room resinance as the dbxs raises these lower level sounds which invariably adds some room boom as not treated. EQing the mic site will give advice on this as i gort an rode NT1 and tryed various vst compressors gates and expanders and ended up three seperate EQ as im in a bunker style flat made of engineering bricks and concrete floor and ceiling. The only other thing that works is to record at low volume on my audio interface and then adjust from my daw but loses something. condenser mics are great but are healivly effected by the room and surrounding materials and trying to make right in my daw is a nightmare, while keeping the clarity and warmth and not squishing it out and adding harshness . Saying that the rode NT1 makes my singing voice and speaking voice sound like i can sing and melodyne does the rest. Trial and error remember to save,.note and edit on aregular bases as changing anything in the room including temperature, time of year and moving chairs adding furniture all effects your recordings adding something always highlights new problems. hope that was usful as im still messing and scratching my head.
Sanii Makhalima I actually think it sounds nice and clean. I would guess that rap translates well to the talk settings that I have currently set in on my DBX. When singing, I believe it to be important to tweak the settings a little to fit the volume of the singer and the timbre of the singer. (Mainly the low filter and high filter detail knobs to match timbre).
@@ZacharyJMoore ok thanks...mine arrived today...there is a very slight hum/buzz....not sure if if yours has such...im comparibg it to yhe other stuff...but mine isnt totally dead quiet...I can hear it if all things r super quiet...is urs like tht too...or do u hav dead silence....even if u lift it towards your ears????
Sanii Makhalima I do here a little bit when I am right up to it. Very subtle but a little bit. As for now, this doesn’t bother me, especially with the gate feature that I can set to omit those types of white noise. But I hope I don’t run into that being something I am disappointed with down the road. For now, what I am using this for, I am loving it.
@@maveferdykrueger2899 If you keep watching the whole video, I explain that it was due to a lack of power to my mic before I had the DBX 286s. In order to get a decent volume before I had to be right up on the mic. I use the pop filter later on in the video.... (busted my friend) ;) lol
@Black Rose, It should work for singing vocals as well. The thing I like a lot about this is the overall quality of any recording you do will be a lot higher. As long as you have the levels set properly in the pre processing, it should work well!
Sanii Makhalima I would love to hear! I just used mine today for singing and I thought it worked lovely. Just get the settings to a natural sound and it works fairly well, I think.
Matt Brandon it does not have to be rack mounted, it could just rest on a flat surface I suppose, but it does not have any rubber footings to stand on so it may scratch or rattle if something is bumped while recording. The mount really was pretty cheap and keeps it clean looking.
this gear is good for a recording studio ? What if I have an outboard compressor and eq units ?? I know the 286s doesnt have a balance output.. it affects the sound if a connect this preamp to another compressor with the unbalanced output ?? Thankyou
I got one of these last week. Hooked my Lewitt 940 to this and recorded an artist over the weekend we was blown away. This will replace my universal audio preamp easy!!!! Good review just chiming in for the musicians.
Just one thing, you should use TRS to TRS instead of that TRS to XLR cable. Since youre using XLR plugged into your interfaces front input, your interface is expecting a microphone level input and not line level input that you want to have. This actually makes your interface peak even though DBX doesnt. Try it, makes it even better experience. There was this one big audio TH-camr talking about it, on a video about plugging preamp into a preamp.
Great! And what I have is the trs to xlr cable as well. I’m so tired of never having things quite right and always having to buy this one next thing.
You need a TRS to TRS cable to connect the dbx 286s to your line input on your interface. A great improvement by the way.
I believe the correct setup is to go out of the DBX into the LINE input (using TRS-TRS) of the Focusrite. Even with the gain knob at 0, the Focusrite will boost the signal if you use the Mic/XLR input. The signal out of the DBX should be line level. Ideally you'd use an interface with a RETURN to bypass the preamps altogether. Hope this helps! Cheers.
Thank you so much. I have the gain turned completely down on my Focusrite currently so that it does not further boost and distort the signal. I will look more into this, thank you very much. :)
@@ZacharyJMoore that's what I'll be plugging mine into as well...I dont hv a line input that bypasses as well
Sanii Makhalima nice! It is always great to connect with people about these types of things. I don’t always have someone to talk to about this side of my life. :)
Hello Zach, nice setup! By the way, can I ask what kind of rack that you are using for the dbx 286s? Is that made of wood or aluminum? Thanks for answering.
Turn the output gain -3 db check out your volume at start and at end of video yor getting room resinance as the dbxs raises these lower level sounds which invariably adds some room boom as not treated. EQing the mic site will give advice on this as i gort an rode NT1 and tryed various vst compressors gates and expanders and ended up three seperate EQ as im in a bunker style flat made of engineering bricks and concrete floor and ceiling. The only other thing that works is to record at low volume on my audio interface and then adjust from my daw but loses something.
condenser mics are great but are healivly effected by the room and surrounding materials and trying to make right in my daw is a nightmare, while keeping the clarity and warmth and not squishing it out and adding harshness . Saying that the rode NT1 makes my singing voice and speaking voice sound like i can sing and melodyne does the rest. Trial and error remember to save,.note and edit on aregular bases as changing anything in the room including temperature, time of year and moving chairs adding furniture all effects your recordings adding something always highlights new problems. hope that was usful as im still messing and scratching my head.
Muito bom parabéns
what does it sound like when you actually sing??? talking is good....what bout music video....rap/singing etc....
Sanii Makhalima I actually think it sounds nice and clean. I would guess that rap translates well to the talk settings that I have currently set in on my DBX. When singing, I believe it to be important to tweak the settings a little to fit the volume of the singer and the timbre of the singer. (Mainly the low filter and high filter detail knobs to match timbre).
@@ZacharyJMoore ok thanks...mine arrived today...there is a very slight hum/buzz....not sure if if yours has such...im comparibg it to yhe other stuff...but mine isnt totally dead quiet...I can hear it if all things r super quiet...is urs like tht too...or do u hav dead silence....even if u lift it towards your ears????
Sanii Makhalima I do here a little bit when I am right up to it. Very subtle but a little bit. As for now, this doesn’t bother me, especially with the gate feature that I can set to omit those types of white noise. But I hope I don’t run into that being something I am disappointed with down the road. For now, what I am using this for, I am loving it.
6i6 I connect it to 286s preamp but 286s volume is low do I still use the interface volume
Why are you not using youre microphone pop filter?
Sounds horrible whitout youre pop filter😂😂😂😂
@@maveferdykrueger2899 If you keep watching the whole video, I explain that it was due to a lack of power to my mic before I had the DBX 286s. In order to get a decent volume before I had to be right up on the mic. I use the pop filter later on in the video.... (busted my friend) ;) lol
It stilcm doesnt make sense😅
@@maveferdykrueger2899 start watching at 3:30. He directly addressed why he wasn’t using the filter.
Hi, is anyone getting a bit of a buzzing sound when you put your ear to the dbx286s, its only plugged into the mains, any info would be good. Thanks
Hi Zachary, good review! does this only work for voice overs or can it also work with singing vocals? thanks!
@Black Rose, It should work for singing vocals as well. The thing I like a lot about this is the overall quality of any recording you do will be a lot higher. As long as you have the levels set properly in the pre processing, it should work well!
I'll be using mine for singing so I cud update u in a week or two as to how that went...
Sanii Makhalima I would love to hear! I just used mine today for singing and I thought it worked lovely. Just get the settings to a natural sound and it works fairly well, I think.
Zack where do you Mount this? Does it have to be rack mounted?
Matt Brandon it does not have to be rack mounted, it could just rest on a flat surface I suppose, but it does not have any rubber footings to stand on so it may scratch or rattle if something is bumped while recording. The mount really was pretty cheap and keeps it clean looking.
@@ZacharyJMoore I guess I could add adhesive rubber feet.
Matt Brandon that would work!!!
Where did you bought the rack mount? Could you please share the link? Thank you
this gear is good for a recording studio ? What if I have an outboard compressor and eq units ?? I know the 286s doesnt have a balance output.. it affects the sound if a connect this preamp to another compressor with the unbalanced output ?? Thankyou