lets talk preamps

number of outboard preamps do you own thats at least $ a channel?

  • no outboard preamps

    Votes: 22 11.1%

  • 1-2 thats $100 a channel

    Votes: 39 19.7%

  • 1-2 thats $200-499 a channel

    Votes: 46 23.2%

  • 1-2 thats $500-999 a channel

    Votes: 26 13.1%

  • 1-2 thats $1000+ a channel

    Votes: 18 9.1%

  • 2-4 thats $100 a channel

    Votes: 12 6.1%

  • 2-4 thats $200-499 a channel

    Votes: 26 13.1%

  • 2-4 thats $500-999 a channel

    Votes: 29 14.6%

  • 2-4 thats 1000+ a channel

    Votes: 15 7.6%

  • I only have the best period

    Votes: 2 1.0%

  • I could care less about preamps

    Votes: 3 1.5%

  • whats a preamp?

    Votes: 9 4.5%
  • Total voters
    198
Fishmed_Returns said:
How are you liking your ISA 428?
How does it compare to the other two Focusrite pres you have?
Click to expand...

I'm digging it especially because it has the digital option. It is a flawless and no brainer pathway into my protools LE system. I'm a real noobie with plugins and protools, but I have high hopes for myself...er... yeah.

The difference in the ISA range is quite dramatic, but I'm also certian my sound has improved because I'm bypassing most of the 002 other than the firewire connection and the monitor features. Now I'm trying to craft the ultimate signal to protools starting with the vintech 1073 clone. Feel free to contribute any ideas.

Steve
 
Since you have the digital option, why don't patch your other pres through it?

-Just a thought-
 
That's exactly what I've done, but the channel inserts are on the first four channels (the ones with the preamps), so the 428 is at the end of the chain, meaning any effects run from the vintech will be "in line". With a serial effect like a compressor, does running it behind the x73 produce the same audio effect as if it were run through a channel insert?

Thanks for tolerating my silly questions
 
blewgrass said:
That's exactly what I've done, but the channel inserts are on the first four channels (the ones with the preamps), so the 428 is at the end of the chain, meaning any effects run from the vintech will be "in line". With a serial effect like a compressor, does running it behind the x73 produce the same audio effect as if it were run through a channel insert?

Thanks for tolerating my silly questions
Click to expand...

You should send the outputs of the x73 and other Focusrite pres through the ADC inputs (5-8) of the ISA. This would allow you to use the four pres of the 428 for the first four digital channels of the lightpipe and the last four channels for the other pres.

142.jpg
 
Thanks for all the info Fishmed,

How would you run a compressor with the vintech in my studio scenario? Would you just run the output of the vintech into the input of the compressor?
 
blewgrass said:
Thanks for all the info Fishmed,

How would you run a compressor with the vintech in my studio scenario? Would you just run the output of the vintech into the input of the compressor?
Click to expand...

Correct, then the output of the compressor would go to the ADC input. IF you plan on using the compressor for other things, or if you are going to run the vintech without the compressor, you should look into getting a patchbay if you don't already have one. They make life much easier in the studio.
 
doulos24 said:
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.
Click to expand...

just read this post now, brilliant.

absolutely brilliant. I love it! very well written, entertaining, and so accurate and imho quite correct that I expect many gearslutz will forever write you off as an ignorant newbie even after you've done this for 60 years.

I salute you!

cheers
Don Kelley
 
I have to agree with Don Kelley... that post was phenominal!

I have 2 ART TPS's and absolutely love them! They are definitely my go to pres. I do want to get one of the MPA Golds. I also have a Tube MP and it sounds decent as well. I think that a good mike pre will make a decent recording technique sound better.

A perfect example is when I have recorded guitar. I spend weeks moving mikes and trying different mikes and different positions, etc, etc. Eventually I got a setup that I thought sounded really good... and it did. But that was with stock Mackie VLZ Pro pres. Then I ended up getting my first TPS. Running that same mike / eq setup through the TPS made a good sounding recording sound better.... not alot better, nothing earth shattering, but definitely better.

Now vocals on the other hand got almost infinately better, but alot of that has to do with the microphone as well. When I first started trying to record vocals I was for some goofy reason trying to use an AKG C1000, mostly because it was either that, a Shure SM57, or a Shure Beta 52, which were the only 3 mikes I had at the time. Needless to say, the vocals sounded harsh, brittle, and crappy. Later I got the tube mike pre and guess what... they still sounded harsh, brittle, and crappy. Then about a year later I finally got a Rode NT1000. The difference was night and day. I literally went from a crap tone to an absolutely awesome, smooth, buttery sound overnight.

I guess my point with this rant is that your recording technique and the mikes you use are just as important, if not moreso than any of the downstream gear that you use... but better gear will make a decent recording setup sound better.
 
I think that my microphone is better than my preamp. I have a Behringer MINIMIC MIC800 Ultra-Compact Microphone Modeling Preamp and a Rode NT2A. I'm considering an upgrade. :)
 
Most of mine are 19" rack mount except for the others that are 1/2 rack mount. I mounted those in a full rack tray.
 
Davisound TB-10, 2 mic channels and 2 instrument channels.

Groove Tube Brick (2) w/ matched TungSol reissues.

Joe Meek VC6Q
 
doulos24 said:
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.
Click to expand...

You must be the lead singer.
 
2 channels Great River
2 channels DAV
2 channels JoeMeek TwinQ
2 channels RNP
8 channels SP 828
8 channels Motu 896HD (BLA modded)
 
I have:
Jensen Twin Servo 990 $2400 2 ch - pure magic
Presonus Blue Tube $100.59 2 ch - a good functional tool

My take, owning perhaps the best and the worst is that the whole thing of mic-pre importance is so blown out of proportion that it's nuts.
The most important thing is the song. If you are recording a so-so song to digital and people listen to mp3's on an iPod it doesn't matter in the slightest what mic pre you use.

The sources are what matter most, and if the drummer is using plastic heads and new, shiny cymbals, and the guitar is covered in plastic going through an amp that's MDF covered in plastic with a metal grille... you think a mic pre can save that?

My Stephen Paul U87 from the Record Plant sounds largely the same on both mic pre's I have... I wouldn't buy anything better than the Presonus until I had a phenomenal mic, not just a good one.

Right after my mic pre, I go through a Summit TLA-100A (tube compressor) and that probably has a bigger effect on the sound than the mic pre.

Buy a great mic first, the pre only magnifies that.
 
these work for me

10 on a Mackie VLZ-PRO 1642
12 on a Yamaha O1V96
4 on a RME-Audio Fireface 800.
8 on a RME-Audio octamic D.

Think that covers mine.
 
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