outboard/standalone pre's VS. Mixer pre's

[Milkfaj]

right now I have an allen&heath mix wizard and no outboard pre's. I went with the A&H because I heard it had great pre's, and i does- it sounds great- very clean, with great EQ. i hear all these discussions about "what is a good 8 channel preamp to buy"... etc and im a little confused.

what is that advantage of outboard units? (By outboard i mean something that screws into a rack and has knobs instead of faders, and possibly has tubes inside, or the word "tube" written on it) if used in conjuntion with a mixer, would you run them line in to the mixer?

At this point (for me) would I only add an ouboard pre to my setup to add variety and color to my recordings, or am I missing out on something really big here?

please be nice.
thanks!

[deepwater]

You would need to spend about $1000.00 pre channel to make it noticablle differance. Now you can get a differant sound/color buy get something like a Joemeek TwinQ. If you want better then I would look at Great River and the like.

[DJL]

The Allen & Heath Mix Wizard is ok... not the best, but ok. However, there are many outboard preamps on the market that blow away the Mix Wizard. With a better preamp you will hear things you can't, won't, and don't hear with the Mix Wizard. For a lack of better words... many outboard preamps will be cleaner, clearer, crispier, warmer, and just better sounding. Also, a good monitoring system/room and etc is a must. Of course the down side is... many good outboard preamps, channel strips and etc aren't cheap. One of my favorite outboard preamps in the Great River MP-2NV.

[Chris Shaeffer]

Folks who mix in the box also enjoy outboard pres. Why spend $800 on a big mixer that you don't use much when you can spend $500 and get exactly what you need (a couple great sounding pres) and pop it in your rack?

[xstatic]

The Allen Heath is a great start, but it certainly is not the end of the road. "Clean" is not how I would describe a Mix Wiz. I think it has a decent warm round sound to it. Not a lot of "Sparkle", but a good solid place to start. Outboard pre's will give you some different flavors, and in general will really open your eyes on certain sources as to what you have not been getting from the Allen Heath.

you don't have to spend $1000 a channel to make a huge difference. The D&R 2 channel preamp is only about $400 for 2 channels of gain.