$99 Presonus.....

V

vic91218

New member
Hey guys.
I was looking for a strip on musicians friend and was kinda wondering if it would be easier to buy what I need separately.
For example....
PreSonus TUBEPre Microphone Preamp $99.99
COMP16 Compressor $99.99
PreSonus HP4 Discrete 4-Channel Headphone Amp $99.99 PreSonus EQ3B Parametric Equalizer $99.99

Has anyone owned any of these products? They seem to have good reviews on Musicians Friend. Let me narrow down my question a bit further....If I'm running an AT4033 into a Mackiecfx16 and into my echo layla/pc....will I hear a substantial improvement using this outboard gear?
I'm also going to purchase a Rode NTK mic....will that go well with this presonus stuff?

Thanks guys..
Keep in mind I'm really only interested in recording Vocals...an occasional keyboard and guitar...acoustic/electric. All separate and not at the same time.
 
if you are recording to PC id skip the EQ and use those $$$ to upgrade the pre and compressor to a M-Audio DMP-3($149) and a RNC compressor($175)........
 
You should notice a big difference. I used to use a CFX 12. I found the preamps very, very noisy. The hiss, summed across 12-16 tracks, was unbearable. I got a Presonus TubePre, and its fine. Nearly everyone here busts on the TubePre, but I have no complaints.
 
There aren't that many pro audio companies out there that make what I'd consider to be really bad gear.

Unfortunately, Presonus would be one of the few. Most of their stuff is basically garbage. You might even do better with Behringer.
 
Hmm. Yeah that may be the case. But what if I got two of the pre-amps to run stereo? Will that work? Ie....keyboards?
 
I wonder if I got the voicemaster pro for vocals..and use the presonus stuff for keys and guitar and such. ?
 
i have a presonus firestation.

it is not total garbage, but it aint great. i am not sure i would buy it if i could travel back in time.

however, the pres on it are passable. actually they seem to be really good IF you have a high gain mic. comparable to my symetrix sx202s for condenser duty.

however, once you get past like 30db of gain they get really noisy and seem to lose something in the frequency response. so they are not good at all with ribbon mics or low output dynamics. but if you mic collection is all studio projects or mxl they might be good enough.
 
eeldip said:
once you get past like 30db of gain they get really noisy and seem to lose something in the frequency response.
Click to expand...

I've had the same issues . . . not to mention what seems to be unusually low headroom.

I hate saying bad things about stuff, but I just don't think I'd feel right if I didn't try to steer people away from buying it. It just seems like there's so much other non-presonus stuff out there that performs so much better, and for less money.
 
good point on the headroom chessrock. they aint got much.

but they have tons of footroom. when i use my earthworks sr69 on snare (my new favorite) the presonus pres are my ONLY pres that pad down enough to take the signal- which is really freakin hot. probably close to line level.

in a weird way it is sort of a feature.

i think it also explains why when some people move over to dynamic mics they are not as impressed as others. my 441 also sounds like shit though the presonus! cause i have to CRANK the pre for most non-drum sources.
 
As far as comparing the Comp16 to anything, what I had before was a Meek MQ3. I didn't like the Meek preamp and the compressor took a lot of dialing in. The Comp16 never sounds bad and the presets make it fast and easy to use.

My "good" pre is a DMP3 but I have a Tubepre for bass. After replacing the tube with a JJ 12AX7 it works great for that purpose. Changing the tube made a huge difference.
 
The TubePRE's are not intended to be used as DI's for keys. I've tried it, they don't do anything for keys. They say so in the manual too, not to use them on line level sources.

I also found that you have to dial in some gain on the tube drive knob first, then additional gain with the gain knob. That's the way to get the quietest and cleanest signal out of them. If you just try to do it with the gain knob alone you'll get into hiss pretty fast. The tube drive stage stays clean for quite ways, so if you stay below 12 o'clock on that you'll stay smooth.
 
I'm using the tube pre for acoustic guitar recording. I like it mostly but I have found that the drive needs to be turned all the way down, I mean even a little distortion ruins the recording. I really can't complain for $99.00.
 
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