I need a new Preamp, any suggestions?

And one for an ART MPA Gold with a tube swap... leaving money left over for other stuff.:D
 
The usual questions. What is the rest of your recording chain? What mics? What kind of music? How many channels were you thinking about? Single channel for $500 or two channels? A little more info would help.
 
A little more info would help, but the suggestions above are great ones. I have an RNP and a couple of tube-swapped MPA Gold preamps. Both great choices...very different. The RNP is probably the best generalist choice though.

Frank
 
The better possibilities are limited in that price bracket. RNP, Grace, ART MPA Gold, Brick. Maybe one of the Joe Meek boxes. Can anybody add any other "better pres" in that price bracket?
 
For the money, you won't beat the Grace. You pretty much need to go double the $$ for that and the difference won't be drastic.
 
I've made decent recordings with both the Grace 101 and the FMR RNP. The Grace 101 tends to be bigger in the monitors, which is why the Grace preamps used to win all those mic pre shootouts back when there less than a dozen decent outboard mic pres. I love FMR RNP on acoustic guitar.
 
Weasel9992 said:
A little more info would help, but the suggestions above are great ones. I have an RNP and a couple of tube-swapped MPA Gold preamps. Both great choices...very different. The RNP is probably the best generalist choice though.Frank
Click to expand...

Frank -

What sort of (presumably non-generalist) recording would the MPA Gold be preferable for?

Thanks.

- Richard
 
my suggestion is check out the DBX 386 +387... they are real tubes (no starved plate design) and have good convertors built in (max 96k 24 bit) has a soft limit feature... the 386 is a stereo unit no frills... the 387 is a mono channel with EQ and compression... i've got a 386 and love it... i even use it for the frontend of my live keyboard rig...
 
expatCanuck said:
Frank -

What sort of (presumably non-generalist) recording would the MPA Gold be preferable for?

Thanks.

- Richard
Click to expand...

My favorite application is for bass, but it's great on lots of vocals (especially paired with a good dynamic mic), snare, kick, toms and some acoustic and electric guitar. The down side to the MPA, IMO is that when it sounds bad on a source, it sounds *really* bad. But hey, at least you'll know when you don't want to use it.

Frank
 
When you guys say a tube swap for the ART MPA, are you referring to another brand of 12AX7, or a different grade of tube, say a 12AT7?
 
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