Preamp Shootout for under £1000

Justsomeguy

Justsomeguy

Quiet is the new Loud
So, my presonus fire studio turned up today after a couple of months of borrowing a friends, and seeing as i can now actually set it up in my rack properly i figured today would be perfect day to shootout my different pre's to see how they stack up.



The test was done with acoustic guitar and vocals (separately) through an sE2200a. All care has been taken to use the same positions for mic's. the pre's are (in no particular order)

M-Audio audio buddy (about £60)
TLA 5001 quad valve pre (about £500)
Focusrite ISA220 (about £1000, maybe just under)
and the built in XMAX pre's on the presonus (the interface was £160)

have a listen and see what you think. if you would like to know which pre's are which, PM me and i'll let you know (i'm not being mean but these kinda things work better if their done blind with no expectations)

Happy listening :)
 
Hi there,
Thanks for posting; These are cool.
I'm watching the snooker so i only gave a quick listen, but first impressions, 1+3 seem to have a bit more high end detail on the guitar.
They seem to have a bit more presence in general.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Xmax came out really well in this test.

Quick stab.
1 = presonus
2 = TLA
3 = isa220
4 = Maudio
 
Awesome post, this is exactly what I needed to compare the Focusrite pres to my Firestudio. I'll let you know what happens when I try mixing the two.
 
I think the samples are too long and take too long to compare effectively. I mean, by the time I load the second, I've forgotten what the first one sounded like. I can't switch between then quickly as a true A/B test should allow. This doesn't help me at all.
 
RawDepth said:
I think the samples are too long and take too long to compare effectively. I mean, by the time I load the second, I've forgotten what the first one sounded like. I can't switch between then quickly as a true A/B test should allow. This doesn't help me at all.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you can download them. Click the arrow icon to the right of each sample. Then you can put them in your daw like the op suggested and a/b them however you like.
 
Potsy24 said:
I'm pretty sure you can download them. Click the arrow icon to the right of each sample. Then you can put them in your daw like the op suggested and a/b them however you like.
Click to expand...

or, rather than using the embedded player, just click on the link below it and view the whole set at once and flick between tracks with ease (tbh, i was really annoyed that the embedded player didn't show the list of the tracks)

I used a longish clip so that you can download and really play with them to get a real feel for the sound of the per's. to my ears the difference between the 4 raw clips is very slim. however, once you start to EQ, compress, whatever else floats your boat, the difference in the pre's becomes much more apparent
 
Here is a quick mix I did with the files from preamp #1.
 

Attachments

  • Shootout 220 Mix MP3.mp3
    1.5 MB · Views: 17
Justsomeguy said:
Sounds really nice man. how did you find working with it? i'd love to hear the XMAX one if you get a chance :D
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think the release time on the guitar compression is a little wonky, but it was just a quick one. What do think is a fair comparison for the xmax mix: use all the same settings or start from scratch but use the same plugins?
 
Potsy24 said:
Thanks, I think the release time on the guitar compression is a little wonky, but it was just a quick one. What do think is a fair comparison for the xmax mix: use all the same settings or start from scratch but use the same plugins?
Click to expand...

I'd say yes as that seems more scientific BUT i found working with them that they all needed slightly different amounts of work to get them to sing/sound close to each other.
 
So, then which should I do? They may need different settings to sound good, true. But I may end up just doing better or worse on the 2nd mix if I change the settings. I'll just post it with the same settings. I think that's more scientific (and easier).
 
Here is the XMAX preamp tracks with the same settings as the 220 mix.
 

Attachments

  • Shootout XMAX Mix MP3.mp3
    1.4 MB · Views: 12
They're not hugely different in the mix, but the 220 sounds a little better to me. Mostly in the top end-- the pick noise on the guitar is nice and smooth on the 220 and just a little bit brittle on the xmax. Also there is something fuller about the 220. Listen to the way the reverb reacts, its a little thicker on the 220, even though its the same reverb. And this is just with 2 tracks. So on a full band mix, there would be a pretty noticeable difference I'll bet. There must be, or all the pro studios would be using Firepods.
 
Potsy24 said:
Here is the XMAX preamp tracks with the same settings as the 220 mix.
Click to expand...

wow, for the same settings, to my ears there's a big difference (but saying that it is me singing and playing guitar so i'm probably overly critical :p) the 220 seems to bring the vocals forward in the mix and makes the reverb sound smoother, and the guitar sounds softer and more natural. the xmax seems to make the low mids on the guitar sound a bit murky and the vocals sound a bit grainy in comparison. thanks for the comparisons man, as i said i did some quick mixes but it's always harder to really judge your own work so it's nice to hear someone else's take on it :)
 
Listening again this morning, and on different speakers, there is a pretty big difference. The xmax sounds thin and not as good now. I just got an ISA One, and I'm looking forward to hearing what it does for my recordings.
 
to be honest, after having a listen i was inspired to get off my arse and go and record some stuff properly again. Hope the ISA treats you well man :)
 
I dig this song, btw! I could really tell the difference in the mixes, the 220 sounding fuller, more clear and seemed to handle your voice a bit better. The XMAX seemed bright but thin. However, for the price difference, I would totally use the XMAX over the 220 at home! It still sounds pretty dang good. The ISA 220 is $1999.99 in the U.S. and the Presonus FireStudio Mobile is $249.00. Your mike alone costs about $300 here, so that's more than the interface, and the combo sounds delicious!

So I'm thinking your mike might have a huge impact on the sound of the XMAX, so I wonder if that's why it sounds so great? Maybe when you're bored one day you can use another mike and compare the two pre's again :p
 
biffbiffson said:
So I'm thinking your mike might have a huge impact on the sound of the XMAX, so I wonder if that's why it sounds so great? Maybe when you're bored one day you can use another mike and compare the two pre's again :p
Click to expand...

i do really like the song, and somehow John Mayer isn't anywhere near as big over here as he should be!

tbh, i was very temped to do just that as i've picked up a couple of new mic's over the past couple of months and really want to put the presonus through it's paces. however, to make it more interesting i wanted to borrow some more mic's from some friends to that there was a larger range. currently at home i only have the sE2200a, an Avantone CK7, an Apex 205 (unmodded) and a PG58. i've lent out and am awaiting return on an NT1a, an NTK, and a couple of 57's and 58's, and would like to borrow a Blue Encore 100 (i bought it with a friend but he uses it ALOT more than i do) and an AT2020 (i really don't like this mic but it gets great reviews and my friend adores it) so that there's a real variety of mic's.

blimey, somehow those prices seem really expensive, but i did just do a quick google exchange rate thing and that seemed about right :( and yeah, for about 1/10th of the price, the XMAX is definitely not 10 times worse than the ISA!

i have always argued that the mic and positioning makes much more of an impact that the preamp which was one of the main reasons i wanted to do these comparisons to see quite how much of a difference the preamp actually made.
 
Dang it, never heard this John Mayer song, but I still like your voice over his. Probably my mind/ears playing a trick on me and I now subconsciously believe that his version is a cover of your's (you know how that is, when you hear a cover before an original!). :P

I'm excited for your new takes! Are you going to be doing different placements for each mike/pre combo, too?
 
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