Do I Really need A pre amp? (ex. Blue Robbie, VT-737SP, Etc.)

[Marleycares]

I have a Rme Baby Face with clear preamps built in already. And when I record Guitars and vocals on it, it sounds pretty natural, and if there are things i don't like or if i want to add or edit the sound a little I can always add effects in from a vst plugin. This is why I am asking is a Pre Amp really all that necessary? I can do everything a preamp can do from My DAW. Is it really worth the money? I've had a pretty cheap preamp before with eq and compression on it, but I never used it alot, I always ended up editing my sounds in a DAW.

[SUPERBANANABOMB]

Preamps are really important if you are recording hardware sources, whether that's a synthesizer, sampler, or guitar. Adding effects cannot fix a crap recording. Preamps can add extra headroom, cream, "hair", space, and energy. It's all about how they're used. I'd rather have a hardware preamp than some vst effects any day.

[CPhoenix]

You don't really need an external preamp if you already have a good built-in one like you said. RME is known for high quality... so I wouldn't doubt the Babyface having good clean preamps on it. Those ARE preamps lol. You have them already... so i'm guessing you're really just asking why would you need an external preamp.

So yeah... if you like what you have... no reason to add something you don't need. Only add stuff if you feel like clean preamps are holding you back, and you want some sort of colour from a good character preamp.... which, like you said.... you could probably simulate w/ software.


Personally... I have nice clean preamps on my Echo interface (not exceptional... but good and I don't feel i truly NEEED much more, if I want to record clean). I wound up adding a Studio projects VTB preamp to my setup... just out of curiousity, since I found one for $80 at a local music store close to where I work in NYC. It has a tube blend. I fired it up... and now I actually do prefer using my external pre most of the time for my vocals, b/c i like the extra tones the tubeblend gives me. Makes it "warmer". I'm sure I could do the same w/ software, but honestly... that's too much work lol. I'd be trying to aim for a certain sound by tweaking knobs on my EQ to alter my clean sound, rather than just getting the sound right the first time on entry with a good preamp. It does help... but it depends on what sound you want... and what you're capable of doing w/ your software.

It's also the reason i'm going to grab an FMR RNC, b/c 1) it's inexpensive.. 2) is said to be freakin awesome, and 3) i compress my vocals anyway.... might as well see what they would sound right if i got some of the compression right on the way in, instead of having to tweak afterwards lol.