What freakin' pre?

F

fretwire3d

New member
I've been researching and planing and trying things out and i have settled on an sm7 and a DBX 160 for vocals... and some sort of pre.

I have nuendo 3 and a presonus firepod. I want something with a lot of tube flavor and a very warm sound and as many options as possible. Also, i want it to be able to overdrive the vocals as well as have tons of clean headroom.

Thanks!

-Nathan
 
chessrock said:
You might take a look at the freakin' Universal Audio Solo 610.

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i love my m610 but for a mic like the sm7, it might not give you tons of clean headroom...
er freakin' a
maybe the solo 110? it's based on the 4110/8110 and supposedly you can get very different sounds out of it (very overdriven tranny sounds, and very clean sounds (something like 77db of gain) out of it.
or i'd say check out a combo of something clean (e.g. safesound p1, fmr rnp) and an eh 12ay7 preamp
 
Sebatron vmp1000. Very versatile, very nice.

Or maybe a Hamptone HJFP2 (only $900 for two channels). I want one.
 
$800 max is not a good price point.

Either spend $1-2k or spend $200. Don't spend $800 on a pre. You won't have a lot of good tube options, and you don't want to spend $800 on something you'll want to sell in a year.

Save a few more bucks and the doors will really start to open.

A-Designs MP-1
Sebatron VMP-1000e
HCL Affinity
etc

I can't stress how important it is to buy the best possible pre you can afford. If $800 is all you can afford, I would not spend it all on a mic pre.

The only exception I can think of is if you can find a vintage tube mic pre, such as Concertone or an Ampex. Likely, these tube pres will be not as quiet as the aforementioned pres, but they can be found for much cheaper and typically sound awesome (especially with dynamic and ribbon mics).
 
It seems like you are looking for two mic pres: one of them tube for the overdriven sound, and one solid state for the lots of clean gain. You can do that for $800 with something like a Groove Tubes Brick and a Rane MS-1b. Or some similar combination. You can also put them in series, with the MS-1b second for that added clean boost if you need it.
 
What does everyone think of the Universal Audio m610? I really like it. First off, I don't feel like it a throw-away when my studio expands and it's all I really need until I go into a real professional setup.

I'm going to wait for a used one on the eBay.
 
the m610 is about 1k, but used it goes for about $800 the same price as a new as a new solo/110 and solo/610.

I'd rather have a tube pre than a solid-state pre. Would a different mic would be a better match?
 
SonicAlbert said:
You can also put them in series, with the MS-1b second for that added clean boost if you need it.
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The MS1B is a freakin' mic pre, not designed for line-level signals, and not likely to handle them very gracefully if asked to. Bad freakin' idea. A line amp would be a much more practical solution.

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the word freakin' was to show my angst in choosing a pre-amp. I feel i'm being mocked.

I'd do the same to others, though. hahaha
 
chessrock said:
The MS1B is a freakin' mic pre, not designed for line-level signals, and not likely to handle them very gracefully if asked to. Bad freakin' idea. A line amp would be a much more practical solution.

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Are you Ed Rei?
 
chessrock said:
The MS1B is a freakin' mic pre, not designed for line-level signals, and not likely to handle them very gracefully if asked to. Bad freakin' idea. A line amp would be a much more practical solution.
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Some preamps are sufficiently robust to handle line level signals, like my DAV BG-1. I can run full line-level mixes through it (with careful setting of levels), and have done so on commercial projects. Sounds great. But I expect that from a preamp with an excellent design and quality construction. :rolleyes:

Of the suggestions so far I do like the idea of the UA 610. But don't overlook the GT Brick, which sounds better than it's price might indicate.

$800 per channel gets you into a nice range for preamps, although many of the $800 per channel units will be two channel boxes, so with those you are in reality looking at more like $1,500-1,700.
 
chessrock said:
Did you even read the guy's freakin' question?
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Not close enough, just caught the part about lots of clean headroom. I'm sorry Chess, I'll try to be more observant. I didn't mean to upset you.
 
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