How much of a difference does a higher quality preamp make?

RAMI said:
Definitely. I'm never in as mean a state of mind as my typing might suggest. It's often more needling than actual anger. I'm not saying that makes it right, but I really don't have a mean-spirited bone in my body. Besides that, I've always liked you anyway. You're a good guy and one of the most helpful people here. :cool:
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Heh! That must be BLOODY GOOD COFFEE!

Rock on mate,
Dave.
 
You guys probably have chased the OP off again. :facepalm: try to remember its the NEWBIE section of the forum. telling newbies to 'go search out all the threads on ...' is not as helpful as pointing to the particular information that would help them - there are thousands of threads on every subject here - try doing a vague search sometime and see just how many matches/mis-matches you come up with.

To the OP - the Presonus is a fairly good deal at that price, new ones are around $200 (but you get a warranty). The MXL is a $100 mic and does pretty well for this price range. As others have already pointed out, the difference between the Presonus and the Blue is most likley going to be the noise level of your recorded signal.
Most everyone on these forums can tell you about buying low-budget equipment they bought only to find a month or two down the road was a waste of their money and they should have waited until they could afford better gear. Of course that means the low-budget stuff can often be found for sale here or fleabay for much less.
Besides the interface and mic, you're going to need a mic stand, an XLR-XLR cable, headphones to monitor tracks while you record with the mic. Monitors for mixing are next, along with acoustic treatment for your room. No matter what your budget is, home recording wants more!
 
My contribution Mike was to clear up some factual inaccuracies (as I saw them).
I commented that noobs should expect a bit of ribbing even in the noob section even if they have "prior knowledge as I also pointed out was my situation.

The item about the difference high end mic pres make was a SPECIFIC answer to the OPs' original question.

I would never (I hope!) just say "RTFFM!" or just list a gaggle of links. We all know that Infernalweb "facts" cannot be trusted but the information on this forum (and a few others) is tempered by peer review and polite debate. If a noob sticks around long enough the "truth" will out. If not, nowt we can do!

Dave.
 
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maestro_dmc said:
The icicle only allows recording up to 16bit 44.1 sampling, which is CD quality. The PreSonus will record up to 24bit, 96kHz. This is a pretty big difference in resolution, and in dynamic range.
The PreSonus will take care of your headphone monitoring issues as well. The XMAX preamps are probably quite a bit better than the one in the icicle.
Plus you get the ability to compress and EQ on the way in to the computer, which is great for monitoring.

The difference in sound will probably be subtle to your ear. When you stack a bunch of vocal tracks with it, it may sound noticeably better than tracks recorded with a cheaper interface.

It's hard to describe what the difference in quality would actually sound like. The step up from the icicle to the PreSonus is like going from a Ford fiesta to a Toyota corolla. Not like stepping up to a Cadillac.

And most recording folks learn to hear these differences after many years of recording.
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Thank you so much!
I kinda know what you mean about being able to hear the difference after year of experience. I guess I should really just delve into it and give it a shot :)

Armistice said:
The general advice here will always be, unless there are other mitigants, not a USB mic, not a mic with a Blue Icicle (which is an interface, not a mic - you misunderstood what I was saying...)

And you already have one!

Well done, good choice... nothing more to do... step away from the Blue Icicle... welcome to home recording. Start saving.... :D
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I knew that the Icicle was an interface. I guess I mis-communicated there as well xD;

mjbphotos said:
You guys probably have chased the OP off again. :facepalm: try to remember its the NEWBIE section of the forum. telling newbies to 'go search out all the threads on ...' is not as helpful as pointing to the particular information that would help them - there are thousands of threads on every subject here - try doing a vague search sometime and see just how many matches/mis-matches you come up with.
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Thank you so much! Yeah, I have tried doing several searches, but most of the threads were very vague, and the answers that accompanied them were similarly vague >_<

To the OP - the Presonus is a fairly good deal at that price, new ones are around $200 (but you get a warranty). The MXL is a $100 mic and does pretty well for this price range. As others have already pointed out, the difference between the Presonus and the Blue is most likley going to be the noise level of your recorded signal.
Most everyone on these forums can tell you about buying low-budget equipment they bought only to find a month or two down the road was a waste of their money and they should have waited until they could afford better gear. Of course that means the low-budget stuff can often be found for sale here or fleabay for much less.
Besides the interface and mic, you're going to need a mic stand, an XLR-XLR cable, headphones to monitor tracks while you record with the mic. Monitors for mixing are next, along with acoustic treatment for your room. No matter what your budget is, home recording wants more!
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I'm getting the MXL mic as the Monoprice rebrand for $80, and also, I've already considered and calculated the costs for a mic stand and the XLR cable. I also already own a decent pair of entry level headphones (the Monoprice 8323), and the 3.5 to 1/4" converter plug.

I think I haven't tried to aim too high for my budget yet because for my previous ventures with arts and sounds and etc. (video editing, tablet drawing/sketching, and headphones), I've usually just been satisfied with the initial ~$300 investment, and have been using the product for years without the need for further investment (except headphones, since this is a fairly recent investment :P). I've been going into this with that mindset. I suppose it could change and that I could be wrong with home recording. This is the perspective I am coming from right now.

RAMI said:
The OP got offended for no reason way earlier in the thread.
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I wasn't actually offended. Sorry for the mis-communication. The only thing that did bug me was some frustration over the lack of answers. I was hoping that explaining that I had some experience and I somewhat knew what I was doing would be able to draw out some better answers. I don't know if it was a wrong assumption or not, but I did get some good answers :)


Thank you everyone for all of your answers! And thanks for writing out the reasoning.
I will be considering all of your advice as I make my decision :)
 
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RAMI said:
It's all good brother. You have nothing to apologize for. I was just trying to get you to post, since I saw you lurking, to show a few whiners that it takes more than a couple of off-topic posts to "scare someone away". Thanx for confirming that for me. :)
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Yeah, it was a combination of being busy, reading it all on my phone and not being able to do a mass reply effectively, and possibly different time zones ^^;

I do think that some of the "whiners" have a point, though. I may have not been scared off, but I know that some other newbies might really be turned off by all of this.
 
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