dbx 286a Preamp

[MX3282]

I'd like some "in-house" reviews of the dbx 286a Pre. I'm buying one today $350 CDN. I call it an affordable outboard piece to start my pallet of sounds. I'd like to hear of anyone else's experiences with them and how they applied them in their chain. After I get my and I get to play around with it, I'd be more than happy to post some samples.

I'm also buying a dbx 166XL Comp today too. again, anyone with any experience with these are encourage to post their comments. As with the 286a, I'll post some samples of before and after using the unit.

Your samples would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks!

[formerlyfzfile]

Way too much money for one.

I have one and use it fairly often but its not really that great and you can score one for about $100-$120 US.

Hell ...... I'll sell you mine for $150

It has a dark sound but the high and low freq enhancer section is pretty good for compensating.

De-esser section aint worth that much.

The compression takes some getting used to but can get some good, if not very colored, results.

My 2 cents ..... ymmv.

-mike

[formerlyfzfile]

Also .........If your looking for color , get the 166xl.

If you want versitile, get an FMR Really Nice Compressor.
WAY more bang for buck.

Do a search on both and see what comes up.

Except for bass guitar and kick, the RNC is really versitile and clean.

Just got my 2nd one.

-mike

[Solafide]

I sent you a pm.

I agree that 350 is too much. I live in New Brunswick, and I have to buy all my stuff through the US. I am looking at getting a kurzweil rumour - it would cost me $720 canadian to get it through the US (including duty). At the local music stop, the best they could do was around $1300 including tax.

[MX3282]

Ok, I didn't buy the 286a Pre from Muzac Stop, $350.00 CDN being too much made me reconsider. So instead of the 286a Pre, what would make a better selection for my money. I understand that there is both clean and colored Pre's out there. I think I'd like to start with a nice Clean Pre.

Solafide, you said that the dbx 386 was a better buy for the buck? How so and what can I expect to pay for one in Canada. Since I can only afford to buy a piece of equipment a couple times a month, I'd prefer to but "New". I know I'll have some kind of support when I need it. (Unlike my Aardvark Pro Q10).

With that said, Whats the most popular Pre going amongst us "Home-studio enthusiasts"? I'd prefer a rack mountable unit for portability but will consider another type.

Lastly, whats the most common places to use a pre? (Drums, Vocals, ???)

[Yescalero]

I like the 286 for spoken word/voiceover recording because the
compressor and d'esser work really well for this application. However
for music recording they sound a little too bland, and the compressor
is not very flexible.

[Solafide]

Solafide, you said that the dbx 386 was a better buy for the buck? How so and what can I expect to pay for one in Canada. Since I can only afford to buy a piece of equipment a couple times a month, I'd prefer to but "New". I know I'll have some kind of support when I need it. (Unlike my Aardvark Pro Q10).

A dbx 386 would be about $750 canadian new. What I meant by "better buy" in my PM to you was that the 386 I am selling for about $300 canadian IMHO would be a better value than $350 for the 286.

With the 386 you get two preamps (that are better quality than the 286 I believe) plus you get the digital outs with their software limmiting. I think this is the strength of this unit - the d/a converters are actually quite good.

But, If you are moving up into the price range of a new 386 ($750) I would be thinking of some different options, but thats just me.


Good luck.

[dirtythermos]

I have a 286a that I got a good deal on a few years ago. All the vocals in this song were done with it. It's nothing special, but it gets the job done in my small spare-bedroom studio.

The compressor is weird... rather than setting the threshold and ratio like a normal compressor, you turn up a knob to "drive the signal into compression." That's backwards of how I think about compression, but it does compress.

I think all the controls on the chained processors have way too much range. I rarely turn anything up past 2 or 3. It is easy to make this thing sound BAD, but I can get decent results out of it, for what I've got and what I'm doing.