My thoughts on the RNP

Dot said:

If you get an RNP, Sytek or MP20, all you have is $700 gone and some half-assed pres that make little to no difference over even the Audio Buddy or any other cheap pre.

Hey, Steve Albini, if you read this, I know you've got a lot of Sytek preamps. If you suddenly realize they are "half-assed" after all and want to get rid of them then I'll take them off your hands for the traditional pennies on the dollar formula. :D
 
Help me understand this correctly by answering the following questions with either a yes or no answer. Thanks

#1. Is the FMR Audio RNP8380 made of plastic?
#2. Does the FMR Audio RNP8380 look like a toy?
#3. When your holding the FMR Audio RNP8380 does it feel like a cheap toy?
 
Harvey Gerst said:


...Second, what's in it for them? If it seems like their reviews are all weighted towards one or two particular companies, that would start me wondering. Especially if they review by blasing the product's nearest competition.

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I think theres an unholy alliance between Dan and a certain company that frequents this board.

Ive had the RNP for a month and while the price/performance ratio may not be as great as the RNC, its a great pre with its own sound. Definitely more interesting than the Grace.
Its noteworthy how Dan keeps talking about "features" and how the RNP is light on that count. The implication to my mind (although he wont say it directly) is that there is a certain other preamp which as it happens is definitely not light on features and actually is well thought out as far as features go, i.e. the VTB-1. It also happens to stay in place no matter how many cables you have running in and out of it. The bottom line though is tone and for $58.5 more a channel you get more pre, i.e. a bigger, more aggressive tone with an extended natural sounding top end that never comes across as bright or spitty.
Lets not confuse the issue. Nobody listening to your mix cares about the routing possibilities, stepped gain, or how much the unit weighed. You buy a pre for the way it sounds, features are barely a distant 2nd consideration.
 
DJL said:
Help me understand this correctly by answering the following questions with either a yes or no answer. Thanks

#1. Is the FMR Audio RNP8380 made of plastic?
#2. Does the FMR Audio RNP8380 look like a toy?
#3. When your holding the FMR Audio RNP8380 does it feel like a cheap toy?
Click to expand...

1. No. It's in the same little metal case as the RNC. The XLR plugs on the back are plastic as are the knobs on the front, I believe.
2. No. It looks like a piece of utility electronics that's kind of on the ugly side.
3. If you have a Grace 101 in one hand and an FMR RNP in the other, then you might go, "This RNP feels like a toy." Or, you might say, "Dang, this RNP is light."

--Steve, Mojo Pie
www.piemusic.com
 
Thanks Harvey for clarifying it has balanced TRS's for outs.
It would be nice not to have to buy another cable though
for those limited to "standard issue" XLR mic cables, albeit a
realtively minor point (Add $50 or more for four new cables).

Harvey and Tubedude, have you guys A/B'd your Beyer Soundstar's with the VTB-1 and RNP much yet?

Part of the issue in these discussions, once you get to gear good
enough to be used in professional applications, as Harvey pointed out is personal taste. And sometimes you may NOT want
the high end to be as extended or detailed as the RNP is supposed to be depending on the application.

Steve (ozraves), I agree with you that the VTB-1/SM58 combo sounds quite good as posted in your review. If you or anyone else gets a chance though, try it on a Beyer M88 or Sennheiser 441 for vocals. . I have a Beyer M88TG at home and it sounds A-1 with that pre IMHO. Curious if anyone else tries it too what they
think.

I tend to lurk instead of posting at R.A.P, however, Mark (owner)
at Fmr. Audio is shown to be a very knowledgable and helpful guy.
His heart is in the right place, so perhaps the lack of response to send a RNP for review was simply due to lack of business organization? I doubt there was anything intentional going on.

Chris
 
ozraves said:
It's in the same little metal case as the RNC.[/url]
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Seriously? The way Dot was going on I assumed that FMR was building them from converted Barbie Dream Vans. I don't have an RNP, but I have a couple of RNC's. Sure, they're light, but they don't feel like toys.

If the cosmetics really bother someone, they can just rack it in either a Funklogic rack or a universal rack tray. Then, they don't look any better or worse than anything else in the rack, and you can judge as to whether or not they are "toys" by listening to them rather than looking at them.
 
ozraves said:
1. No. It's in the same little metal case as the RNC. The XLR plugs on the back are plastic as are the knobs on the front, I believe.
--Steve, Mojo Pie
www.piemusic.com
Click to expand...

Either you don't crap about the RNC compressor or your smartass, which is it?
 
i heard a grace 101 and i loved it but i needed 2 channels and i couldn't afford to buy 2 - 101's.

that's when i read Harvey Gerst's article on MoJo Pie and decided to roll the dice.

When I got the RNP, i thought it was the ugliest thing i'd ever seen. i saw the plastic 1/4" jack on the back and felt a bit cheated.

I recorded a bass straight into the DI, and then sandwiched a Sansamp between the two. I didn't really like either one. It sounded too bright. Then when I was rough mixing the instrumentation and was choosing between the RNP stuff and the old bass line recorded through the 1604 pre, I really liked the bass --> sanamp --> RNP track.

Then I recorded back vocals, and the vocals just sounded PRO.
female --> 4033 --> RNP --> Tango24. now when I say PRO, I'm comparing it to a 1604vlz pro, and an M-Audio Duo because that's what I've owned.

Now I have to re-record the lead vocals, because they don't sound PRO.

i like this piece of gear and i don't feel cheated. you ever humped a girl that wasn't that pretty, but put her best work in every time you knocked on her door? that's the RNP for me right now. i may want something better in 2 - 3 years.

ps. I feel obliged to define my definition of 'PRO'. 'PRO' to me means that when I listen to work that I have done and compare it to the quality of the music that I listen to, I don't hear a big drop off. my recent mixes have had a semi-PRO sound quality wherein the drop is noticable but not offensively so. I didn't feel that I could do better with what I had. So I bought the RNP.
 
I own 8 RNC1773 compressors and believe me, they look and feel like a toy... even when mounted with Fuunklogic rack, it still looks and feels like a toy. But, I bought 8 of them.

If the RNP8380 preamp is made of plastic like the RNC1773 is, then my guess is the RNP8380 preamp looks and feels like a toy.
 
JuSumPilgrim said:
I think theres an unholy alliance between Dan and a certain company that frequents this board.
Click to expand...

It's kinda' funny.

Why is it that when I was implying that months ago, everyone and their brother jumped all over chessrock, poured the gasoline, lit the match and literally engulfed my ass in flames? :D

I'm done trying to help you guys sift throught the bs around this board. It eventually shows itself in time anyway, so why do I even bother? :D

Just in case any of you were wondering, there's another guy on this board with a similar unholy alience, only his is to a certain "brat pack" community of old-school AEs. Only I don't mind him because he contributes heavily. I'll shut up and let you try and figure that one out yourselves. ;)
 
chessrock said:
It's kinda' funny.

Why is it that when I was implying that months ago, everyone and their brother jumped all over chessrock, poured the gasoline, lit the match and literally engulfed my ass in flames? :D

I'm done trying to help you guys sift throught the bs around this board. It eventually shows itself in time anyway, so why do I even bother? :D

Just in case any of you were wondering, there's another guy on this board with a similar unholy alience, only his is to a certain "brat pack" community of old-school AEs. Only I don't mind him because he contributes heavily. I'll shut up and let you try and figure that one out yourselves. ;)
Click to expand...

Chessrock, I just saw your title. I think I'll make you the Mojo Pie gear pimp when I put up a masthead. BTW, where's the text version of that piece you sent?

Steve, publisher of Mojo Pie
www.piemusic.com
 
I don't believe there is any alliance whatsoever between Dan and Studio Projects, if that's what you mean. I think Dan just really likes the SP products - a lot. Hell, I'm probably closer to Alan, Brent, and Stephen than Dan is.

I'm also friends with Fletcher, Mark McQuilken, Dan Kennedy, Taylor Johnson, Wayne Freeman, John La Grou. and Karl Winkler. Does that make me their shill? You'll have to look at my posts and decide that for yourselves.

I've jumped on Alan's case more times than I care to remember, flat out didn't like some of the mics in Taylor's lines, blasted some of the MXLs, said I thought the VTB-1 was better than the RNP for my RCA 77DX, said I liked the DI in the RNC better than the GR MP-2NV and Millinnia SST-1, and in general, tried to keep everybody honest.

If I am supposed to be somebody's shill, I guess I'm not very good at it.
 
DJL said:
If the RNP8380 preamp is made of plastic like the RNC1773 is, then my guess is the RNP8380 preamp looks and feels like a toy.
Click to expand...

Jesus. Do any of you people actually listen to this stuff, or do you spend all of your time feeling it up? I seemed to remember the cases of my RNC's being metal, but I haven't seen (or felt) the cases in quite some time because they've been in a rack. To be honest, I never paid much attention to it in the first place. So, if you say they're plastic, I believe you, but WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT THE CASES ARE MADE OF?!

Actually, let me rephrase that. It's obvious WHO cares. The question is WHY do you care what the cases are made of? Does it affect the sound in ANY way whatsoever? Isn't the SOUND the important thing? Maybe I'm missing something here.
 
Hey chessrock, you didn't mean Harvey did you? I don't think he meant you Harvey. Although, chessrock is one of my favorite button pushers on this website so maybe I'm wrong. Hey chessrock, how about pushing some more bottons and give up some names, lol.
 
jslator said:
[B To be honest, I never paid much attention to it in the first place. So, if you say they're plastic, I believe you, but WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT THE CASES ARE MADE OF?!
[/B]
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j - can I call you j - see, you "never paid much attention". Well, I pay attention. I use and review lots of gear all the time.

I have had hour-long conversations with John Hardy on just "the knob" - you know, that thing that you turn on a mic pre - or other devices. The knob is important to me. It's always my first test to gauge the quality of a piece of gear - I turn the knobs.

Of course sound matters. That's number 1. But it's not the only thing that goes into making a complete and total product. The physical interaction with a product is very important to me. The ergonomic design is a huge part of how a unit lends itself to the overall creative process. Something like metering and the way it interacts is important. Being able to easily see what is going on is vital.

Maybe you "never paid much attention", but I do. Always.

[ gives a wave and a shoutout to Harvey and Steve ]
 
Come on guys, we're all just gearnuts at heart who like to discuss things
that 99.99% of the listening public don't know or care about.
There's really no unholy alliance's going on, only shared (or not) opinions.
Glad to hear my VTB-1 kicks the RNP's butt though! (just kidding) :)

Chris
 
jslator said:
Jesus. Do any of you people actually listen to this stuff, or do you spend all of your time feeling it up? I seemed to remember the cases of my RNC's being metal, but I haven't seen (or felt) the cases in quite some time because they've been in a rack. To be honest, I never paid much attention to it in the first place. So, if you say they're plastic, I believe you, but WHO THE HELL CARES WHAT THE CASES ARE MADE OF?!

Actually, let me rephrase that. It's obvious WHO cares. The question is WHY do you care what the cases are made of? Does it affect the sound in ANY way whatsoever? Isn't the SOUND the important thing? Maybe I'm missing something here.
Click to expand...

Pay attention, I care and I've even opened the RNC up and took a look inside it to see how well it was made and etc. And as for the plastic, plastic sucks. Why? Because it doesn't shield out RF, it breaks easy, it makes devices feel and look like toys and I just don't like the cheap plastic cases.
 
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