lets talk preamps
- Thread starter doulos24
- Start date
Whoopysnorp
New member
I have the Focusrite ISA428 unit, which is 4 pres at I guess about $420 a channel; the Sebatron VMP4000e, which is 4 pres at about $450 a channel, a Presonus Eureka on which the going rate is I think about $500, and a Tascam M320 desk with 20 pres. Not sure how to put a value on those...I think that mixer sold for something like four grand new but I got it for $300. I like the pres, at any rate.
donkeystyle
New member
You can believe what you want, but as long as your mic pre's are approximately as good as a dmp3 your weakest link is not your mic pre's.
As long as your gear is at least mediocre, the instruments, the room, and your ears will determine how well the recording turns out.
Most people on this website including me (but less lately) don't spend enough time training their ears. We're all far to quick to blame our gear for our own shortcomings.
You could record using only dmp3's and sm57's and as long as you have a decent sounding, semi-accurate room, some decent monitors and learn to listen.....I mean really listen,you could do some great sounding recordings.
Don't get me wrong, great mic's and pre's are nice to have, but most people on this site focus far too much on that and not nearly enough on listening.
Last edited:
mshilarious
Banned
pohaku
New member
Let's see:
4 ACMP-84s
2 ACMP-81s
Pendulum MDP-1 (2 channels)
Peavey VMP-2 (2 channels)
RNP (2 channels)
A-Designs P-1 (x2)
Purple Audio Biz
API 512c (x2)
Neve 1272 racked
Groove Tubes MP1 (x2)
Millennia TD-1 (x2)
4 ACMP-84s
2 ACMP-81s
Pendulum MDP-1 (2 channels)
Peavey VMP-2 (2 channels)
RNP (2 channels)
A-Designs P-1 (x2)
Purple Audio Biz
API 512c (x2)
Neve 1272 racked
Groove Tubes MP1 (x2)
Millennia TD-1 (x2)
It's called "The Rack" not "The Ears" or "The Room"...
Ironklad Audio
New member
i don't have a lot compared to some here...16 channels on my onyx 1640, along with an MPA gold
i'd like to add a 3124 and 2 channel of neve-ish flavor, whether it's vintech, GR, or whatever, but i have more important shit to spend my $$ on at the moment...
i'd like to add a 3124 and 2 channel of neve-ish flavor, whether it's vintech, GR, or whatever, but i have more important shit to spend my $$ on at the moment...
donkeystyle
New member
That doesn't make my point any less valid. What's in "the rack" is not as important as the musicians performing, or the sounds coming from the musicians performing, or what you're hearing/not hearing.
I was responding to doulos24 claiming that mics and preamps are the best investment for your studio. That's just not true. Especially for a newb.
The best investment in your studio is learning to really listen. Then it's quality of musicians and their instruments and their ability to make them sound good, or at least your ability to make them sound good both at the recording and mixing stage; both of which are part of learning to listen. Then the room and monitors, then mics, then preamps and convertors if you're using digital.
this is how important preamps are
I'm looking to pick up a pre-amp. I've done a lot of research, but would like to get some opinions. Clearly, from everything I've read, pre-amps are the most important thing by far. So I've decided to spend $50 on mics, room treatment, converters, and monitors, and put the remaining $10,000 into a pre-amp, because that'll get me the best results I'm sure. So I'm looking for a $10,000 pre-amp that would be optimal for my style of music, which is mostly kind of in the Emo-Polka genre, with a little bit of Tuvan Metal Throat Singing.
I've looked into many pre-amps but have heard bad things about all of them, such as being slightly harsh in the 2000 to 2002Hz range, creating nano-fluctuations on the leading edges of odd numbered soft transients, poor results due to one too few or too many windings on the input transformer, lack of pure oxygen free silver internal connections, and inferior knob polymers which affect electron flow in some orientations, all of which I think would be very bad for my music. And many pre-amps it would seem are both very mid-forward and very mid-scooped at the same time, which of course would make them flat overall and that would be totally unacceptable.
I would like a pre-amp that caresses the high frequencies, as though they were the fine hairs on the belly of a baby kitten, so that no matter what I record it will sound silky and smooth and never harsh. They must be extremely, incredibly, massively present, but unhyped. And the lows should be soft and billowy and enormous, like the breasts of my nanny when I was a child. All electical components must be hand made, new old stock, fashioned between the years of 1957 and 1958, during warm but not humid weather conditions, in either Germany or the southeastern US. I've been told that only with these specific components will the mid-frequency transients be accurate to sub-nano-second tolerances while remaining as smooth as butter.
It must be tube based, of course, that doesn't even need to be stated, though for some reason I just did. The tubes must be hand made, to the strictest tolerances, by men named Jergen or Heinz, and they must cost more than $1000 per tube, or I've been told there will be no chance of their providing the level of sound quality I require. I've spoken on the internet with many people who can tell the difference between two tubes of the same batch, without even turning the pre-amp on, and they all agree that very expensive tubes are absolutely critical. I've had constructed an electro-magnetically sealed, environmentally stable enclosure for the pre-amp, so that the tubes will be able to operate within one deci-degree of their optimal temperature at all times, completely free of external interference.
Since I have $10,000 in my pre-amp budget, please do not recommend anything less than $10,000, even if you think it sounds better than anything else, or suggest that I spend some of the budget on other things. This is the most important part of my studio, and I must spend exactly this much. I've had the advice of many people on the internet whose names and signatures assure me that they are experts in this area, and I will not be deflected from this well researched course.
I'm looking to pick up a pre-amp. I've done a lot of research, but would like to get some opinions. Clearly, from everything I've read, pre-amps are the most important thing by far. So I've decided to spend $50 on mics, room treatment, converters, and monitors, and put the remaining $10,000 into a pre-amp, because that'll get me the best results I'm sure. So I'm looking for a $10,000 pre-amp that would be optimal for my style of music, which is mostly kind of in the Emo-Polka genre, with a little bit of Tuvan Metal Throat Singing.
I've looked into many pre-amps but have heard bad things about all of them, such as being slightly harsh in the 2000 to 2002Hz range, creating nano-fluctuations on the leading edges of odd numbered soft transients, poor results due to one too few or too many windings on the input transformer, lack of pure oxygen free silver internal connections, and inferior knob polymers which affect electron flow in some orientations, all of which I think would be very bad for my music. And many pre-amps it would seem are both very mid-forward and very mid-scooped at the same time, which of course would make them flat overall and that would be totally unacceptable.
I would like a pre-amp that caresses the high frequencies, as though they were the fine hairs on the belly of a baby kitten, so that no matter what I record it will sound silky and smooth and never harsh. They must be extremely, incredibly, massively present, but unhyped. And the lows should be soft and billowy and enormous, like the breasts of my nanny when I was a child. All electical components must be hand made, new old stock, fashioned between the years of 1957 and 1958, during warm but not humid weather conditions, in either Germany or the southeastern US. I've been told that only with these specific components will the mid-frequency transients be accurate to sub-nano-second tolerances while remaining as smooth as butter.
It must be tube based, of course, that doesn't even need to be stated, though for some reason I just did. The tubes must be hand made, to the strictest tolerances, by men named Jergen or Heinz, and they must cost more than $1000 per tube, or I've been told there will be no chance of their providing the level of sound quality I require. I've spoken on the internet with many people who can tell the difference between two tubes of the same batch, without even turning the pre-amp on, and they all agree that very expensive tubes are absolutely critical. I've had constructed an electro-magnetically sealed, environmentally stable enclosure for the pre-amp, so that the tubes will be able to operate within one deci-degree of their optimal temperature at all times, completely free of external interference.
Since I have $10,000 in my pre-amp budget, please do not recommend anything less than $10,000, even if you think it sounds better than anything else, or suggest that I spend some of the budget on other things. This is the most important part of my studio, and I must spend exactly this much. I've had the advice of many people on the internet whose names and signatures assure me that they are experts in this area, and I will not be deflected from this well researched course.
dickiefunk
New member
My humble pres are :-
ART MPA GOLD £150
M-AUDIO TAMPA £96
DMP3 £99
ART MPA GOLD £150
M-AUDIO TAMPA £96
DMP3 £99
I never claimed it's not valid... it just sounds a bit soap-boxish, and old and tired, in a thread titled Lets Talk Preamps... in a forum call The Rack.
I agree the that the room is equally important as the preamp (and another thousand various and sundry details) but it's kind of a chicken and the egg situation. Does the room track well because of the preamp, or does the preamp sound great because of the room. A great preamp in a great room sounds, well... great...
But when it really comes down to it (Soap Box Please)
I think the least mentioned, but most important aspect of the signal chain is the talent standing in front of the mic... We're like Monks hand transcribing the bible... just preserving a performance as accurately as possible.
DrewPeterson7
Sage of the Order
:rofl:
On a more serious note, doulos, I think you're confusing what Britney Spears is doing with what your average home recording enthusiast is doing. Spears makes music videos. We make music.
EDIT - and re-reading that, I'm not saying that like some "misunderstood artist/anti-mainstream" thing, but rather as a serious comment - "Womanizer" as a song pretty much blows. But, damn does it make a hell of a soundtrack to Britney's dance routine on her music video. THAT is why that track is selling.
darrin_h2000
Banned
You have to get the sound on the track in the first place...its better to work with nice tracks in the first place than to have to fix a garbage track...a SM57 into a DMP3 isnt so bad...but an SM7 into a NEVE isnt that much of a budget jump...and it is the sound most of us would be satisfied with.
Wow... where do you shop... I want to shop with you
dgatwood
is out. Leave a message.
Restated, we should be like monks, merely transcribing reality. That doesn't necessarily mean that all engineers are....
I personally think the monks probably employed a bit of artistic license themselves...
Richard Monroe
Well-known member
I have 18 channels that run the gamut from $12 per channel to $1000 per channel, from Avalon to Behringer. Almost everything goes through Avalon AD2022 or Joemeek twinQ.
But if I need a bunch of channels, and sometimes I do, I work my way down through the 1-4 channels of a Digi002 to a DMP-3 to Behringer ADA8000. As amazing as the Avalon is, what truly amazes me is that the Behringer doesn't totally suck. That doesn't mean it's a "go-to" pre, but I've needed to use it a few times, and it has done everything I needed it to do.-Richie
But if I need a bunch of channels, and sometimes I do, I work my way down through the 1-4 channels of a Digi002 to a DMP-3 to Behringer ADA8000. As amazing as the Avalon is, what truly amazes me is that the Behringer doesn't totally suck. That doesn't mean it's a "go-to" pre, but I've needed to use it a few times, and it has done everything I needed it to do.-Richie