Another bloody preamp thread

^This if you’re going down the preamp rabbit hole There’s a truckload of great preamps out now. 500 series let’s you use different flavors in one box, plus you can get EQs and Comps to put in there also. If you just want a transparent preamp Focusrite ISO- one works well.

I have and use 500 series preamps but, my behringer UMC204 HD get just as much use if not more. I do my mobile recordings with it , I can put it, the laptop, cables, and mics all in one bag.

ISA is a bit 'colored' in a nice way with its Lundahl input transformer. Not what I consider 'transparent' from my own experience.

At about 7.5 on the attached chart.....
 

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That's a cool chart. And I'd argue it's no coincidence that so much of the action is clustered in the "colored" section of the chart - having a very clean pre at your disposal is important (though I'd hazard a suspicion that most of the stock pres in better quality interfaces tend to be pretty clean and uncolored), but once you're covered there, when you start turning to external pres, you're looking for them to do something to the sound, rather than just make it louder while preserving clean transient response.
 
I've bought an RE20 mic, along with a DAV BG1 and an Avalon U5 DI.

Shouldn't have any excuses now for recording into my RME HDSPe AIO via those means.

I'm also going to get a measurement microphone and try to get my room more to where I want it to be with my rockwool panels.
 
That's a cool chart. And I'd argue it's no coincidence that so much of the action is clustered in the "colored" section of the chart - having a very clean pre at your disposal is important (though I'd hazard a suspicion that most of the stock pres in better quality interfaces tend to be pretty clean and uncolored), but once you're covered there, when you start turning to external pres, you're looking for them to do something to the sound, rather than just make it louder while preserving clean transient response.
well, I could have said Gordon M5, but that’s a little much. I was looking at a fairly clean preamp around his price range. Of course the Audient interfaces have some decent preamps,

Glad you found something, the RE20 is good mic, the Avalon is used a bunch. Some like it better than Demeter. Hopefully you’ll post up something with your new gear.
 
well, I could have said Gordon M5, but that’s a little much. I was looking at a fairly clean preamp around his price range. Of course the Audient interfaces have some decent preamps,

Glad you found something, the RE20 is good mic, the Avalon is used a bunch. Some like it better than Demeter. Hopefully you’ll post up something with your new gear.

I will do but it’s going to take quite a bit of time, I’ve taken a lot of the advice on board here and I’m going to focus on my performance which has been slap dash for 20 years.

Regarding the BG1, I was surprised where it sat in that table. I’d say it’s very clean sounding not mid way.
 
off topic but my neve 511 portico preamp isn't even close to 10 on that chart, it's more like 6-7, the portico series have less colour than the 1073 or shelford range, which definitely are close to 10, the chart isn't an accurate representation of reality because colour is subjective to each individual, and we all hear slightly differently. I used to have the ISA one pre and it's less coloured than the portico, it was actually very versitile and a really good pre. On all pres you can control the colour from how you set up the gain structure with the trim and main gain knobs by driving the transformer harder or not.
 
Ive never owned the Great River but I thought it was a Neve as it could reproduce the guitar fuzz intro in the Beatles Revolution? or go clean. (scratch that...I see the Great River NV is in the colored and the MP is in the lower area)

I agree the ISA stuff is one I liked a lot at least for a mic or bass, clean but with something extra. SOS really used them a lot for some big shootouts.
 
What if I'm really into DIY preamp like Capi, JLM, AML, Hairball, etc. I started using them last year and I suddenly realize that I could own a pretty nice pre-amp without breaking the bank, of course it is not that cheap, but at least I feel like now I can get most of the time a pretty honest take. Many of those are replaca of original, older API and Neve so they should sound pretty close to the original, that's what they are all saying anyway. So far so good.
 
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