Best preamps for the price!

When I made that earlier comment I didn't realize that you indeed had experience with higher end preamps, Sorry about that!

I agree with you about the importance of the mic.

In blind tests of various gear I have had mixed results as far as cheap versus expensive. Sometimes less expensive beats more expensive, but often not. Also, there's cheap gear and then there's inexpensive gear. I think there's a difference between the two.

If you carefully choose less expensive gear you can come up with some winners. These will tend to be the exceptions in their priuce category though. Like you can't say that because M-Audio's cheap gear is good, therefore all cheap gear is good. Know what I mean?

I feel the same way about Groove Tubes lower priced gear as you do about M-Audio. Really great bang for the buck, and beats out a *lot* of more expensive gear in blind tests I've done.

But again, the gear has to be carefully chosen.

Like my DAV BG-1 preamps. Inexpensive and totally blew me away when I heard them against my much more expensive preamp I had at the time. But again, the BG-1 is the exception, not the rule. Cheap gear in general does sound like cheap gear, in my opinion.
 
if you need 8 great drum mic pres its gonna cost you. best off moving mics around or different techniques or replacement progarms. ive found the fire pods pres are good enough for general use . you have 2 line ins so maybe grab a high end pre to see if thats gonna give you the sound you want on overheads or bass and snare. i use a high end pre for the important vocal stuff and single tracking everything else into the fire pod. you can also use the spdif in if you have a pre with converter or a seperate box like a lucid . maybe a apogee mini me. if you want drum mojo api has a 2 channel box with digital out. if you just dont like the sound of the fire pod maybe get a fireface 800. i just dont think for the money the mackie onyx pres are gonna be a big wow factor over the fire pods.
 
My experience with Focusrite platinum series and the digital I/O has been very good. Pristine sound with Rode LDC mics.
 
Right! I used to have a Firepod and then I bought a Mackie 400f. The difference in pres (to me) were a very good improvement. I only record with 4 mics but the 800R has the same pres. But! The biggest improvement in sound I have done is the building of a drum cloud (unless you already have one). That dramatically improved my sound (especially cymbals).

Of couse now I am looking at the Trident s20 for overheads.....but then I have a problem with wanting to upgrade everything all the time.....I am sure most peeps on this forum do the same. It's a never ending addiction :). I should be practicing more instead thinking about preamps/mics all of the time.
 
Myriad_Rocker said:
Screw budget...get a couple of these for drums!! Well, they can be used for anything for that matter.
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I've heard the 235L's on drums and it's amazing how much of a difference there is.

Sub-$1000 though, The mackies are a good choice. I had a 1220 and was very impressed with the preamps.
 
I don't really think any of those options will be significant improvements over what you already have. I would personally just start saving up the cash for something really nice like an API 3124+ or UA4110.
 
+1

bubbagump said:
I don't really think any of those options will be significant improvements over what you already have. I would personally just start saving up the cash for something really nice like an API 3124+ or UA4110.
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In fact, to tangentialize a bit on the Firepod pres - I just bought a pair of Seventh Circle Audio N72 channels - by all accounts nice Neve-clone preamps that are certainly a step up from the "budget" arena of preamps.

Well, after getting them in, I've now done two A/B runs with the N72 on my voice, my wife's voice (she's toured with various vocal ensembles), and my daughter's voice (we're blessed to have a very musical family). Basically my wife and daughter are CLUELESS about electronics, recording, anything that involves cabling and electrons for that matter. They both do, however, possess exceptionally fine ears (musically) for both intonation and overall tone. (In fact, my wife probably does a better job helping me do the A/B thing with tubes or gear for my bass tone as well, ha!)

So after recording tracks on several songs and matching db levels for the faders (importing completed tracks and singing against a full mix) - I did the blind A/B thing with both of them on some very nice open-back Sennheiser cans....and asked them to try and differentiate the tracks as well as respond as to which they liked better. All the tracks were recorded with a MXL v67G LDC (yeah, it's inexpensive and Chinese-made, but I actually like it on their vocals). Result:

Completely mixed - about 50% down the board taking all the songs and and tracks into consideration. Bottom line is that the Firepod X-Max pres did VERY well against the SCA N72 channels...with regard to fullness, warmth, frequency discrimination, and noise floor. They had an excellent presence to them without being overstated in the treble frequencies.

Before you spend more money on Onyx pres (Mackie), you might want to weigh your bang-for-the-buck quotient here. My band records every performance through Onyx pres...and they do nicely, but I've found them to be (very slightly) more "dark" sounding to my ears in comparison to the Firepod preamps.

Just my .02,

Jay
 
my second post today pimping the sytek mpx 4aII
(no relation, i swear...... just love mine)
 
I say save up a little more money and something like the Vintech Dual 72. Use that on kick and snare, and use your budget preamps for overheads, toms, etc...
 
SonicAlbert said:
When I made that earlier comment I didn't realize that you indeed had experience with higher end preamps, Sorry about that!

I agree with you about the importance of the mic.

In blind tests of various gear I have had mixed results as far as cheap versus expensive. Sometimes less expensive beats more expensive, but often not. Also, there's cheap gear and then there's inexpensive gear. I think there's a difference between the two.

If you carefully choose less expensive gear you can come up with some winners. These will tend to be the exceptions in their priuce category though. Like you can't say that because M-Audio's cheap gear is good, therefore all cheap gear is good. Know what I mean?

I feel the same way about Groove Tubes lower priced gear as you do about M-Audio. Really great bang for the buck, and beats out a *lot* of more expensive gear in blind tests I've done.

But again, the gear has to be carefully chosen.

Like my DAV BG-1 preamps. Inexpensive and totally blew me away when I heard them against my much more expensive preamp I had at the time. But again, the BG-1 is the exception, not the rule. Cheap gear in general does sound like cheap gear, in my opinion.
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Albert,

I've heard the DAV BG-1 described as being in the clean camp. The DMP3 is described that way, also. Have you tried a DMP3? If so, how would you describe the difference between the clean BG-1 and the clean DMP3?
 
i'll go against the grain and say go with the mackie here

the audio quality and feature set is hard to beat for the price...i have a buddy who's producing a lot of records for a lot of people using the 800r into an RME fireface, along with a single-channel great river
 
I haven't done a head to head with the BG-1 versus the DMP3.

While some describe the BG-1 as "clean", it is really so much more than that. It's kind of hard to describe, but I find it detailed and accurate, yet still warm. It also has a big sound and some character (while still be clean).
 
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