$200-300ish preamp vs mixer pre's?

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talontsiawd

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Ok, i have a yamaha 12/4 that i bought with no intention of ever really running vocals through it. I bought it for my outboard soundmodules and samplers, monitering, etc.

So anyway, the main reason I'm looking at a dedicated preamp is soundquality (obviously). I hear reviews on many but not compared to stock mixer preamps. I just want to know if i'm really upgrading. Obviously it seems that a $200 mixer with 6 preamps and a bunch of other stuff wouldn't have the same quality as something similarly priced with 2 preamps but that logic doesn't always work.

The second reason i'm looking into a preamp is to have a seperate thing from my mixer. I'm not sure if i would even run it though my mixer, i'd have to see if i bought one. It would be nice to have something i could take with me without unplugging 20 or so cables, etc, if i needed to. This is a small thing to me though, no major advantage.


The 2 preamps i'm looking for is the art mpa (non digital) and the dmp-3. There are some other ones as well. So how would they compare to my yamaha preamps?


Other info.

I record hip hop/rnb
Mics-Rode NT1a
SC-M-audio delta 1010lt
Room is "sort of treated"-703 pannels in the coners. I do not want to invest more here until i move to a different location.
 
those are good budget pres, but i don't know if they'll give you a much different sound than your yamaha pres. do you like the rode for vocals? if not, i'll take the turn this time pointing out that using a mic like the shure sm7b might be a good investment of that money. michael jackson used an sm7b for vocals on thriller and some of his other albums when he could have chosen any mic he wanted (well actually it would seem to be bruce swieden's choice). the anthony kiedis of the red hot chili peppers, bono (although he also reportedly uses sm58's and beta 58's) are among the others who use the sm7b for vocals, when they could choose almost anything else.
ymmv.
 
As far as i know, the nt1a works for me. I don't have alot of experiences with other mics to be quite honest. I used an sm57 for awhile but i didn't like compared to my nt1a. I've used an AT30305 (i think) before i had this, the person who i worked with brought it over. I'm really not running a "recording studio" (i put it in quotes because it's far from a studio in general), 95% of my stuff was purchaced for making instrumentals, etc. I am no vocalist myself.

And, a want to add, I'm by no means set on a preamp, i just have some money to spend, i'm pretty content with my equipment set up for making instrumentals, i just want to address the recording side since i have more projects that look to be recorded at my place.
 
I have both pre's you mentioned. The DMP3 is definitely a good bang for you buck, it's very cleand and has a good bit of gain. The MPA has a different sound to my ear, the variable impedence is a cool feature and it can get dirty if you want it to but overall it's pretty clean. I prefer the MPA for vocals out of my selection of pre's but I can't compare it to your mixer's pres because I haven't heard them. Hope this helps some.
 
My 2 cents

I have never recorded with the yamaha before, but I have a Mackie 1604 VLZ pro for comparison.
I have both the Dmp-3 (2 of them) as well as the ART MPA and the MPA Gold.
I personally feel like the DMP-3 is a rather large step up from the Mackie . It is cleaner, clearer , more quiet, and has more headroom, although not as much as a RNP ( I have 2 of those as well). It works well on vocals , acoustic guitar and drum overheads as long as they source you are recording is not overly loud, or really high transients (such as screaming vocals or bombastic drums close miced)
The MPA is an "allright " pre, but is colored sounding, but is also better in most regard to the Mackie pre, but no eq obviously. I like the MPA most on electric guitars and Bass, particularly paired up with the Pro VLA.

Again, this is MY preference and experiance. I am sure other will disagree.
My sugestion is, if you only are going to get one pre for now... get a clean one.

Tom
 
Thanks guys, this is defineatly helping me. I haven't made any decision by any means so keep the responses comming. I almost feel like i have to buy one just to get an end all answer for myself :D
 
I used to have a Yamaha 12/4. (the one without any effects)

I seem to recall the pres being very clean and actually extremely good relative to the money the mixer costs. I wouldn't consider anything in the $200 area an upgrade. Now if you want something with a different texture/color, then I could understand buying something else to go with the Yamaha, but not something that is considered a "clean" pre.
 
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