Quieter I/face vs. noise reduction?

[Roger Jackson]

A studio I work in is using MOTU 8Pres. I've had good experiences with MOTU when recording music, But for dialogue, we are finding the high input gain needed introduces a lot of noise.

May I draw upon the huge experience on this board to ask - Should we invest in high-end interfaces, or put our faith in noise reduction software? I've heard the Waves bundle is very good, but is it time-consuming? - they need a quick and dirty (Well, clean actually) solution.

Thanks for any advice.

Roger Jackson
Film Music
Oxford UK

 

[Markdvc]

Hi Roger

Personally, I would solve the source of the problem rather than being constantly confronted with the need to "repair the damage", so to speak. It sounds like you need cleaner preamps than those in your MOTU device. If it only is a problem with dialogue, you could do well by looking at getting one very good preamp for this purpose, perhaps the MOTU pres are OK for other, louder signal sources? I use Metric Halo's 2882 and ULN 8. The 2882 is fine for drums, amplified instruments, trumpet etc. but the ULN 8 pres are so much better, the quieter the signal, the more of a difference I notice.

kind regards

Mark

 

[Peter Ostry]

But for dialogue, we are finding the high input gain needed introduces a lot of noise.

If the microphone is not the weak point, a good external preamp can solve the problem. You need quiet mics also of course, otherwise a better preamp would better amplify the microphone noise. Additionally, if your mic is too dull and you need much of EQ for the heights you may introduce hiss anyway. In this case you should think about the mic selection.