Good tube mic preamp?

FlowMaker

New member
Hey guys, first of all Hi to everybody, I'm new in the forum, this is my first post and I'm very glad that I found this place. I'm looking forward to become part of this musician family and hope to make good friends around here.

Well, now to music talk... I'm finishing my vocals' home studio and I want to get me a good tube preamp for recording only vocals and using only 1 microphone, no need anymore channels but one or two. I own a AKG C214 Large diaphragm mic and I'm planning to buy an mbox2 pro or digi 002 factory to use with protools. What do you guys think about those Audio interfaces?
And for my tube preamp I would love to have a nice warmth in my vocals recording, I'm looking to spend about $700 dlls only for the tube preamp... what setup would you recommend for the audio interface (protools compatible) and tube preamp?

I would really appreciate your help guys! Greetings!

Mario
 
Not a huge number of choices for tube preamps in that price bracket. GT Brick, used Peavey AMR VMP-2 (discontinued - two channels), maybe a used Sebatron or Hamptone, used GT MP-1 (discontinued - one channel - but they show up on e-bay from time to time for @$400 a channel), ART MPA.
 
"Cheap" and "tube" in one sentence almost invariably leads to "crap" in the next.

Although the "Brick" is a decent preamp, "tube sound" is more a marketing tool than anything else. I'd stick with a good, warm, solid-state (as almost every preamp known for it's "warmth" is solid state) preamp. True's P-Solo, Grace's m101, even FMR's RNP are all easily in your price range and will easily slay with extreme prejudice almost any "toob" preamp at twice the price.
 
I'm planning to buy an mbox2 pro or digi 002 factory to use with protools. What do you guys think about those Audio interfaces?
If you are planning on using Protools, you don't have much choice. You have to use Digidesign insterfaces with Protools

And for my tube preamp I would love to have a nice warmth in my vocals recording, I'm looking to spend about $700 dlls only for the tube preamp...
At that price, you will be hard pressed to get any 'tube warmth' out of a preamp. Real tube circuits are expensive to implement compared to solid state. So the quality of a solid state preamp will be higher than that of a tube preamp in that price range.

Most of the classic preamps that everyone drools over are solid state (Neve, API, Great River, etc...) In fact, you would be hard pressed to name a high end tube preamp that wasn't designed in the last 15 years (long after all the classic 'warm' sounding stuff that you are trying to emulate was recorded)

The tube=warm thing is a marketing scam. Quality = warm, and you get more quality for your dollar with solid state.
 
Why Pro Tools... pretty limiting DAW for the home recordist looking for two channels... look towards Reaper for absolute best bang for the buck
 
Why Pro Tools... pretty limiting DAW for the home recordist looking for two channels... look towards Reaper for absolute best bang for the buck

Looks like he's bought the marketing hype twice. Tubes AND Pro Tools. No offense intended FlowMaker. Hang around here and research a little.
 
Look into the line6 UX2...it will do both the preamp and interface job.

Thanks Darrin, I already checked it, and it seems a good interface and preamp for the price! People has given it really good reviews... So I guess I would have to go with another mixing software than protools right?
 
"Cheap" and "tube" in one sentence almost invariably leads to "crap" in the next.

Although the "Brick" is a decent preamp, "tube sound" is more a marketing tool than anything else. I'd stick with a good, warm, solid-state (as almost every preamp known for it's "warmth" is solid state) preamp. True's P-Solo, Grace's m101, even FMR's RNP are all easily in your price range and will easily slay with extreme prejudice almost any "toob" preamp at twice the price.

Not a huge number of choices for tube preamps in that price bracket. GT Brick, used Peavey AMR VMP-2 (discontinued - two channels), maybe a used Sebatron or Hamptone, used GT MP-1 (discontinued - one channel - but they show up on e-bay from time to time for @$400 a channel), ART MPA.

Yeah thanks a lot guys, as I've been reading now, probably the tube thing is a marketing tool right? I think I might go with a solid state preamp, as some of u have suggested...
 
If you are planning on using Protools, you don't have much choice. You have to use Digidesign insterfaces with Protools

At that price, you will be hard pressed to get any 'tube warmth' out of a preamp. Real tube circuits are expensive to implement compared to solid state. So the quality of a solid state preamp will be higher than that of a tube preamp in that price range.

Most of the classic preamps that everyone drools over are solid state (Neve, API, Great River, etc...) In fact, you would be hard pressed to name a high end tube preamp that wasn't designed in the last 15 years (long after all the classic 'warm' sounding stuff that you are trying to emulate was recorded)

The tube=warm thing is a marketing scam. Quality = warm, and you get more quality for your dollar with solid state.

Thanks a lot for your reply Farview... so what solid state preamp would you recommend in that price range? I think I'm gonna stick with a solid state preamp and a Line6 UX2 audio interface... what do you think?

Really appreciate it again!
 
Why Pro Tools... pretty limiting DAW for the home recordist looking for two channels... look towards Reaper for absolute best bang for the buck

So Reaper will be the way to go?... or what other good ones do you recommend for just mixing the vocals into the track?

Thanks a lot man...
 
Looks like he's bought the marketing hype twice. Tubes AND Pro Tools. No offense intended FlowMaker. Hang around here and research a little.

Hehe thanks man... yeah, apparently I was believing the marketing thing!
But I have really appreciated your help guys! THnks!
 
So Reaper will be the way to go?... or what other good ones do you recommend for just mixing the vocals into the track?

Thanks a lot man...
Download for free (no timeout)... then $50 for non commercial license... go get it, the things it won't do are less every day, and will not be generally missed for your use...and then download some other timeout trials (Steinberg, Sonar, Cakewalk (huh?)... and compare... you probably won't notice any difference other than the price
 
Hehe thanks man... yeah, apparently I was believing the marketing thing!
But I have really appreciated your help guys! THnks!

Thanks for taking that in the spirit in which it was given. Most of us have been where you are. That's how I know.

Good luck with whatever you decide to go with.
 
Thanks Darrin, I already checked it, and it seems a good interface and preamp for the price! People has given it really good reviews... So I guess I would have to go with another mixing software than protools right?

BTW...it also comes with Abelton live...a free version of that software
 
"Cheap" and "tube" in one sentence almost invariably leads to "crap" in the next.

Although the "Brick" is a decent preamp, "tube sound" is more a marketing tool than anything else. I'd stick with a good, warm, solid-state (as almost every preamp known for it's "warmth" is solid state) preamp. True's P-Solo, Grace's m101, even FMR's RNP are all easily in your price range and will easily slay with extreme prejudice almost any "toob" preamp at twice the price.

really nailed it...

i use grace 101s in my studio, it out-perfoms the brick i had...
 
Keep your eyes open for a used Peavey VMP-2. Yes, it is a Peavey but it is a real deal 4 tubes per channel preamp and it can be found in your price range. Here is a link to some more info on it:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug99/articles/peaveyvmp2.htm

What is said aboe is true, tube does not automatically mean warm sounding. A lot of the time what people think they hear in the tubes is really the transformer sonic signature. In the case of the VMP-2, it really is a great preamp for the money, with transformer outs or you can by pass the transformer by using the unbalanced outputs. This is not some "hybrid" tube preamp, it is a classic tube design.
 
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