Preamp bypass

[garrett21allen]

Hey all. has anyone tried these methods yet

Thanks joe Allen.

[Bruce Graham]

Hey Joe;
I have used the Insert Return as a microphone input but it was not on a Mackie d8b. I think it was on a Midas XL-3. I used a Avalon rack mount preamp. It was a while ago.
The preamp chip in the console died and that was the work-around.
Crash's idea is the more logical way to go.

Cheers
Bruce

[Crash]

I actually use the Analog I/O (ALT I/O slot) trick for my outboard compressors, though the concept is the same. I feed the comps with the bus outs and return with the ALT I/O slot. It is the cleanest way to get back into the console with out hitting any other gain stages.

Taking the preamp out into the ALT I/O is the same concept. I actually take my preamp outs into an Apogee AD8000 and come out of that via TDIF straight into the multi-track, bypassing the console all together from an input stand point. It doesn't get much more direct than that. If you don't mind the console doing the A/D conversion than the ALT I/O slot is the ticket in my opinion.