Mic Preamp or Mixer

[tadmaz]

I was originally looking for a mic preamp, most likely the audio buddy, but then I saw some soundcraft mixers on ebay for about the same price as an audio buddy!?! Specifically the "Soundcraft Spirit Folio Notepad Mixer." It's more than plenty for my purposes, so I'm wondering how's the quality of the preamp abilities of this mixer compared to the audio buddy.

[Phyl]

At that price point I'll guess that the two are pretty close in quality, at least as far as noise floor and gain are concerned. Seems you'd get a lot more flexibility buying the mixer, and later when you want something special in a pre-amp, you can buy nice channel strip.

Tell us what you really like about the Audio buddy over the mixer. Does it have an instrument input? is that important to you?

[tadmaz]

Well it seems that getting the soundcraft board is better in terms of capabilities, I originally was just wondering how the quality compares between the two. I found this review of the board:

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/revie...cromixer/5.asp

Here's the text from the conclusion of the head to head micromixer review:

"If your budget can make it, the Folio Notepad is near perfect for desktop music applications. It's ergonomically successful and the most aesthetically pleasing machine we looked at. What's more, it's flexible enough to earn its keep in your system long after you've moved on to bigger and better things."

And I think I'm gonna try to get one of these, just to have the future capacity to add more mics/inputs.

[tadmaz]

I got a Samson Mixpad 9 for $37 on ebay I'm happy now!