mic preamps

[BuzzHaze]

People keep telling me about mic pre-amps. I have a yamaha AW2400 with fair preamps but not as good as the seperate units available. I'm wondering if it's worth the money to go and get one? Will it really make my vox warmer? There are so many choices out there that I don't even know where to begin. I can imagine that $500 should get something pretty good. Any recommendations? or is it something I don't really need at my level?

Thanks

[thebigcheese]

Well, I don't know how the preamps in your Yamaha are, but I think for most purposes, as long as you've got a good set, you don't really need more (yet). You can buy more expensive preamps that may or may not sound better--as with most audio stuff, I think it's mostly subjective. Certain preamps add a certain character to the sound and that character might not be what you want all the time. On the other hand, you might find that a certain mic and a certain preamp work well together for vocals or drums or whatever. Do you see what I'm getting at?

For me, the main disadvantage of standalone pres is that I don't have extra space to run them in to my firewire interface... I suppose one day I might get just a converter interface and run a bunch of pres into it or something.

[mikemorgan]

Of course a $5000 pre-amp sounds better than a $500 pre-amp. If you don't have one, you won't know the difference. I've never owned a Bentley, but I bet it's a really nice car. My Chrysler gets me where I need to go though.

I think I'll get a new bumper sticker "My other pre-amp is a Vari-MU".

[drossfile]

Originally Posted by BuzzHaze

People keep telling me about mic pre-amps. I have a yamaha AW2400 with fair preamps but not as good as the seperate units available. I'm wondering if it's worth the money to go and get one? Will it really make my vox warmer? There are so many choices out there that I don't even know where to begin. I can imagine that $500 should get something pretty good.

warmer? that depends on what kind of preamp you're looking for--one with color, or one that's cleaner. for clean gain, at $500 for 1 channel, the true systems p-solo or grace 101 are good choices. they won't "warm" anything, because they're colorless. for warmth you'd probably want a tube preamp like the UA solo/610 (used) or groove tubes brick.

Originally Posted by BuzzHaze

Any recommendations? or is it something I don't really need at my level?

Thanks

what's your level? pro or hobbyist? rich or middle class? (i didn't bother with poor--you're considering a $500 preamp! )

as a hobbyist myself, i can strongly recommend the m-audio dmp3 for clean gain @ $160 new (2 channels!), but if you really want to lay down the $500, the grace 101 is crystal-clear and the 2nd best value out there imo (i say 2nd because it's better than the dmp3, but certainly not $970 per channel better).

for warmth, the art mpa gold is a popular choice, and you get 2 channels for $300 new. if you wanna go cheaper, for $120 the studio projects vtb-1 will give you warmth that is not exactly good or or bad, but rather "good-cheap." what can i say? i like mine, but it's certainly no solo/610.

a lot of the sound characteristics are dependent on the mic you're using too. for warmth, i'd rather put an sm7b through a grace 101 than most ldcs through a brick.

fwiw. i'm no expert. happy hunting!

[BuzzHaze]

thanks for the information. I have read about the ART mpa gold on-line, I guess I did mean tube pre-amp when I said "warm up" the vocals. I also want to see if it would help the sound while mic'ing a guitar amp. Having heard it from you and some others as well, makes it a top contender. I record alone so a 2 channel unit is fine. I'm not on a budget as per say, but I do like to spend my hard earned money where it will get the most bang.

I use a Neumann TLM-103 mic for vocals. I have a few Sennheiser 421's, SM57's, 58's and an AKG C451EB plus a few more that don't get used much.

I would call myself an upper-middle class, wish-he-was pro studio hobbiest with lofty dreams of recording bill-board busting hits in his livingroom

...much like the rest of you all I trust