MicTube

Thrust

New member
Has anyone here tried the Alesis MicTube. If so what does it sound like. Give some particulars if possible. Thanks in advance
 
From reading the description on Google, it looks like it's what we call a "toob" preamp—that is, a solid state preamp coupled with a low-plate-voltage tube that mostly just adds distortion. You can usually spot these by the ability to "dial in" a variable amount of tube distortion. That and the price; real tube preamps generally start at about $500, give or take.

My gut says save your money.
 
You mean they were good before?

Some stuff was but you had to be selective. Wouldn't use an ADAT for production but I liked the microVerb series and think that the HD24 units are quite good as long as one is willing to deal with the tinker-toy remote and lack of support. Their boards were absolute garbage.
 
What is your current setup? From experience, I would suggest dropping the notion that any cheap gear with a tube in it is going to have a significant positive impact on your current signal path. The MAudio DMP 3 always served me well as an upgrade to preamps built in to the interfaces I was recording with. It's solid state, but adds little coloration and provides a lot of clean gain for the money. It also has some handy features like a low pass filter. Just my 2 cents.
 
I've not tried it. However, I did have one of those Behringer Compressors, with the starved plate tube stage. I didn't like hte compressor (too many knobs, but I didn't like the way it compressed or the metallic way it sounded -- my opinion.) the "Tube warmth" gimmick did deliver some "tube warmth." it's a gimmick, no doubt about it, and the effect is pretty subtle, but it is there. What are you looking to accomplish from something with a tube in it? "Tube warmth?"

Try it out if you can afford to not like it and get rid of it if you don't, but accept the fact of what it is.

If you are handy with a soldering iron and can read a schematic, you might build a NYDave one or two bottle, or a pultec clone:

Dual Tube Microphone Preamp

This guy had a preamp based on the Aikido:

Boozhound Laboratories
 
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