# Need help finding a mic preamp to grow with



## Obfuscator (Mar 15, 2015)

Howdy!

I've been using UMIK-1 with REW (FANTASTIC SOFTWARE, thank you :5stars but ended up bumping my head against the wall as UMIK-1 is USB and you don't have the ability to run loopback as timing reference to set delays appropriately.

So I got the XLR based Dayton EMM-6 but lack a mic preamp with phantom power. As we all know this is a very cheap microphone and in the long term I will probably be getting something like the Earthworks M30.

What I'm after is a USB based mic preamp with phantom power that I can live with even if I upgrade the microphone at a later point. It's important that the unit has a digital output, reason given below.

In advance, thank you very much for your help.

*Having miniDSP 4x10 HD in the loopback chain*
There is one criteria that may be of huge importance and it's that the USB card with phantom power has a digital output.

I use MiniDSP 4x10 HD as a DAC, active xover, preamp and DSP engine. I figured that to have the loopback chain set up properly I should have a digital output (spdif or toslink) on the mic preamp so I can have it go into the miniDSP and then use one of the outputs on the miniDSP for the loopback connection. Reason being that it will remove and account for any processing time within miniDSP 4x10 HD.


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## Obfuscator (Mar 15, 2015)

*Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 a viable option?*

Do you guys think that Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 would do the job properly, please?

http://www.instruments2go.co.uk/images/P/I2G_Scarlett_6i6_front.jpg

The idea would be to set it up like this:

http://i.imgur.com/9jpn00J.png

USB: Computer to Focusrite 
XLR: Focusrite to Dayton EMM-6
Digital out: Focusrite to miniDSP 4x10 HD
Feedback loop, RCA/XLR: miniDSP to Focusrite

Would this work, please?

Edit: Can't post images yet.


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## jtalden (Mar 12, 2009)

I use that a setup briefly for evaluation just to see if it was an option. I don't really recall for sure if I confirmed if loopback timing was impacted. I was assuming it would not be. That is, I don't see any reason why it would be a problem. At the time I was more interested in other potential differences. 

No guarantees from me, but I would be very surprise if there was a problem.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Obfuscator said:


> So I got the XLR based Dayton EMM-6 but lack a mic preamp with phantom power. As we all know this is a very cheap microphone and in the long term I will probably be getting something like the Earthworks M30.
> 
> What I'm after is a USB based mic preamp with phantom power that I can live with even if I upgrade the microphone at a later point.


If REW measurements are your primary objective, there’s no good reason to spring for the M30. All you need is a mic with custom calibration from Cross Spectrum. It’ll cost you less than $100.

On the other hand, if you have other uses for the M30, you might need a better sound card than the Focusrite. If that’s the case you might want to make an inquiry at a forum for professional users, such as the Tape Op Message Board.

Regards, 
Wayne


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## Obfuscator (Mar 15, 2015)

*jtalden*; ok, thank you at least that's some what reassuring as I'm contemplating that device hard now.

*wayne*; hi, firstly just want to say thank you for your tutorials on here, I've spent the last couple of days reading your excellent posts on gain structure etc. As for the mic preamp and microphone thanks for your insights it looks like I don't need to spend big bucks to get good measurements then.


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## Wayne A. Pflughaupt (Apr 13, 2006)

Thanks for the kind words Ob, and happy we could save you a few hundred bucks (sorry 'bout that, Earthworks!).

Regards,
Wayne


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