Mic Pre, also on a budget

IronFlippy

Dedicated To My Member
First of all, I'd like to apologize for all the new topics today, I feel like a spammer :(

I'm upgrading my crap equipment (Rolls mini mixer and impedance matcher for a mic pre amp >_<) and would like other people's opinions on stuff before I actually buy it.

After a little while researching mic pres, it seems like the SMPro Audio 4-Channel preamp is what I want. What I was looking for was a small preamp with phantom power that could be switched on/off independently of each channel (to use a dynamic and condenser simultaneously). I'm also on a college student budget, which helps none.

From what I understand, a bad preamp can really kill a recording, adding a ton of unwanted noise. Does anyone have any experience with the preamp, or do you have one that you recommend? By the way, my budget is under $100
 
the presonus tubepre is pretty solid for $100 but its only 1 channel. i think the m audio audiobuddy preamp is 2 channels and people seem to like it. by the way, phantom power isn't going to affect most dynamics, unless you're making tapeop diy mics
 
Doesn't phantom power just increase the level of a mic? Would that then, in turn, increase the level of a dynamic mic up way past line level? Or do I have this wrong?
 
phantom power is to power condensor mics. most people say that phantom power has no effect on dynamic mics when turned on. phantom power has'nt hurt any of my dynamic mics nor can I hear any difference in my dynamic mics when it is turned on. i have also read that if you're using condensor mics, it's a good idea to read up on power requirements for those mics and compare it to your preamps power output capabilities.

I can attest to the audiobuddy quality. for a cheap pre/di box, I think it's very good. get two of them and you'll have 4 channels of clean preamp/direct input for about $160. I'm currently using a yamaha mg 12/4 mixer and I can honestly say that the audiobuddy pre's sound better. also, mixers don't have di inputs for guitar/bass and plugging a guitar/bass into a line input of a mixer sounds pretty bad and is noisy.

i think i need to sell my mixer and get a couple of pre/di boxes again. maybe an audiobuddy and a dmp3.
 
IronFlippy said:
First of all, I'd like to apologize for all the new topics today, I feel like a spammer :(

I'm upgrading my crap equipment (Rolls mini mixer and impedance matcher for a mic pre amp >_<) and would like other people's opinions on stuff before I actually buy it.

After a little while researching mic pres, it seems like the SMPro Audio 4-Channel preamp is what I want. What I was looking for was a small preamp with phantom power that could be switched on/off independently of each channel (to use a dynamic and condenser simultaneously). I'm also on a college student budget, which helps none.

From what I understand, a bad preamp can really kill a recording, adding a ton of unwanted noise. Does anyone have any experience with the preamp, or do you have one that you recommend? By the way, my budget is under $100
That's quite a restricting budget, not many decent choices in that price range.

I own one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=47094&item=7326021097&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

I really only use it for monitoring and routing but I've called on the mic pres a few times and they did a pretty good job. That should go for a fair bit less than $100 and you'll have headphone monitoring too.
 
to save space.
try a cad mic into a rane ms1 b mic pre.(but more expensive than your budget). difficult one.
for ultra budget try a used electrovoice dynamic from a pawn shop for 40 bucks into a studio projects vtb1 as an option.
 
Yea, the $100 budget is a big minus, but my manager won't put me on for more hours so i have to deal with crappy paychecks. Plus, I plan on getting a lot of stuff this summer: Delta 66 (or 44), this mic pre, an MXL990, maybe a dynamic, a MIDI interface, an n-Track license (finally, those sounds every 20 seconds are really annoying), and hopefully a small MIDI controller to replace the behemoth that is my Casio WK3something. All this on a part time job, AND saving for the next school year. Life's a bitch =/.
 
Do you really need the 4 channels? If you can get by with 2 and then get another 2 later, there are better options. You may be able to find a DMP3 on ebay for $100...that's the step up from an audiobuddy and lots of people around here say really good things about it. I have one, it's much clearer than the blue tube which I also have (think fuzzy with the blue tube and the vtb1). It's a pre that will be with you for a while.
 
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