Preamp Obsolete-ology- RANE

CoolCat

Well-known member
Shure Q&A mentions RANE preamp suggested and an old website, no longer alive, did a shootout to a $2000 pre vs a Rane.
Im revisiting this as I just bought a DMS22 (a dual MS1 with EQ) for $149.
I had two MS1's, learned how to make a $10 obsolete powersupply for the units requiring a obsolete powersupply plug, and compared these to other pre's. I sold them eventually and today bought the Dual 19" rack version of the same (with EQ ). If I recall the solo Rane MS1a and MS1b sounded good though not a huge difference compared to my clean interface preamps.

Time travel lead me through internet years of a few people discussing these and Rane was consistently called "ok". ..my opinion and interpretation. There werent very many "peeing their pants in excitement posts" about the Rane preamps.

In what Id call the Ethan Winer Data over PlaceboHype approach and the Obsolete Gear Site- Brandon Drury, that did a very good comparison of the Rane to a HiEnd beauty, these two got me interested to check the RANE preamps out again.
TEST article
Martech computers - Computer Help 24

GearDealer in all levels of gearslutting...The Rane are just a good and natural sounding pre, with a surprising amount of detail. The Rane is a little light in the low end also so it has its own "sound" as well.
Im thinking vocals and guitars probably HiPassFilter on anyway at 80hz or higher.

" Last month Eric Schilling did a mic preamp shootout. I brought over a cheap $150 Rane MS-1b mic pre. In every category from sax to snare to vocals it rated first or second against Avalon, GML, Manley, and everything else we could throw in the pile" 2004-

Eric Schilling-
Eric Schilling - Mixonline
ROGER NICHOLS-
Roger Nichols (recording engineer) - Wikipedia

2003Post-I have a big box full of Rane mic preamps. I use them all the time, but I have to disguise them so nobody knows.
Eric Schilling, Tom Morris and I did a mic pre shootout last month, and just for fun, I included the Rane MS-1 against all of the Avalons, GML, and other preamps up to $5000.
The Rane held its own and was never rated lower than second place in all categories; Snare, Sax, Guitar, and Vocal. Pretty impressive for under $200. Rane also makes the FM-14 which is the same mic pre with EQ, insert for efx, and two seperate outputs. We used the MS-1 for Steely Dan live recording.
ROGER


Heres the oscope screenshot of the two preamps compared. What do you think? Ones $2000 and one is $50+.
(The green was lowered slightly to allow seeing both preamps signals.) more to come....maybe

ADD> unit arrived in mint NOS including spare SM2017 and manual. Original box and packing. UNit plugged in and tested out perfect.
THE DMS22 is , imo, the same sound as the MS1a and b which I have owned. The EQ was alight and I didnt try the stereo/thing.
Very simple clean gain, and well built. I like the metal 19" rack over the little odd MS1 packages.
 

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