From joek1000@aol.com Mon Aug 04 09:54:19 2003
Subject:CX-3 > Tube Preamp > Speakeasy!

There have been discussions on and off about how having two preamps
gives a better sound than just a single preamp. There has also been a
lot of discussion of how the CX-3 has a relatively low signal that
should be boosted before it hits the Speakeasy.

I put the two of them together last week, using a second tube preamp
to boost the CX-3 signal. I knew it sounded good at home but the test
was this weekend at an outdoor show. It sounded fantastic! Short of
using a real Leslie I don't think I'm going to get a better sound
than this out of my rig.

Here is the chain:

A.) CX-3 > ART MP preamp > Mixer channel 1

B.) Mixer Aux 2 send > Speakeasy > Mixer channel 2 in

On channel 1, dial in amount of Aux 2 (Speakeasy) that gets added
(around 2:00)

This also allows me to add varying amounts of Speakeasy to the other
keyboard sounds since each channel has its own aux 2 control.

Routing the Aux send to a regular channel just lets you adjust the
aux volume with a regular channel slider or dial. You could also just
route it to the aux return.

I'm using an Alesis Studio 12R rack mixer but any mixer that has an
Aux send would work. Likewise, any good tube preamp should work for
the second tube preamp.

BTW, the Studio 12R manual contains a lot of good information on
things like aux send, trim levels, and "proper gain staging with
other equipment". The pdf is a free download from here:

http://www.alesis.com/products/mixers/studio12r/index.html