Mic Pre

Fangar

Fangar

New member
Hey Guys,

I have heard a bit about Mic Pre's but don't have to much experience with them. I think for the money and what I have read on some of the posts here I am going to pick up an M-Audio DMP3. I record with a Studio 24 board and an ADAT. Is a mic pre even useful in this application, or is running the mic (v67) directly into the board pretty much the same thing? Not to sure if it will benfit the sound of the recorded VOX. Thanks in advance,

Cheers,

Fangar
 
This is like one of those "sonusman" attempts to ask the obvious right? I thought you were enough informed about that, Fangar.

Anyway, from what I gather those Alesis boards seem crap, so there will probably be an upgrade with the DMP-3.
I haven't tested it myself, but I myself am too in the market for a decent mic pre.
I am gonna test (if possible):
-Joemeek VC1Q
-MindPrint Envoice
-Drawmer MX60
-M-Audio DMP-3
 
I knew someone would think that when I was writing it :p . Anyway, If I have a question, I am not afraid to ask (Even if it is a dumb one). I am pretty new to recording vocals and have no experience with Pre's. Yeah, I think the Alesis is not the greatest, so not sure if this will help. I have used the preamp section of My Trace Elliot Acoustic amp just for a test, and it seemed to help the signal a bit. Still looking for advice.

Fangar
 
Basically, the whole idea behind mic preamps is this: the better your mic preamps, the better the sound. Plain and Simple. The preamps in your Alesis board probably doesn't "suck" but it's not going to blow any minds. The M-Audio preamp will make a very noticeable difference in your sound, trust me.
 
I've used the blue tube, and it's a decent pre for the money. (2 channels for $150. ) I use it for all my stereo recording, and it beats the pres in my Fostex mixer hands down. They are worse, however, than my Joemeek mq3 and my Focusrite Penta. Don't know how it compares to the DMP3. From what I've heard, it's probably worth paying the extra $50 to get the Maudio.
 
Dmp3 is a different flavor than the blue tube. the blue tube is a little smoother but the dmp3 is a cleaner all arround pre that is nothing more than the Dmp2 with a groovy new meter. I would buy a Dmp2 while you can for cheap.
 
I have the studio 24 and tested the mixer's pres against an audio buddy a few days ago. For acoustic guitars I couldn't tell the difference, for vocals the audio buddy sounded slightly better, but not the leap I was expecting/hoping for (audio buddy going direct to adat).

What was different...the mic was more sensitive when using the audio buddy, i.e. noise from other apartments were picked up more than when using the mixer's pres. Also, the levels were more constant using the audio buddy. The same track using the mixer would peak into the red at times, where the audio buddy maintained a consistent level and didn't have the level fluctuating. Don't know how the DMP3 compares to the audio buddy, but what I took from comparing, was that the alesis micpres aren't as bad as people make them out to be.
 
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