Well, here's a current thought I've had: The MixPre 6ii made by Sound Devices is super cool. 32 bit float, decent mic preamps, portable, great! Only has 4 microphone inputs. I need 5, possibly 6. Soon? Even more, but that's a problem for future DuckChase.

How can you get 6 mics, (4 + 2 extra channels) into the MixPre 6? Well, since its name is 6, that means there ARE 6 inputs, but 2 of them use a slightly lesser amp circuitry, and they're not XLR inputs. It's a measly 3.5mm stereo jack. Sigh.

Solution? External preamps!

Here's a test of 2 Shure KSM141 mics: 1 into XLR input direct in MixPre, the 2nd into a TC Electronic GoldChannel stereo preamp, then line-out to the MixPre's stereo 3.5mm input on tracks 5-6. They do sound different, but not terribly different, and anyways I'd use 5-6 as discrete room "ambience" mics anyways. So they don't need to match mics 1-4.

Give them a listen, MixPre direct is on L channel, GoldChannel preamp is on R.

AudioTest01 Stereo MixPreL GoldChannelR

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AudioTest01 mono MixPre ch3

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AudioTest01 mono GoldChannel ch5

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MixPre_inputs5-6 – Google Drive

(In case you're curious and want to check out the stems yourself, 48khz, 32-bit float)