AEA TRP, The Ribbon Pre

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SRR

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Anyone have there hands on this yet? Got any adjectives for its sound? Warren you out there, have you tried it?

I am going to buy a pre, in the next couple of days, it has to work well with ribbons (65dB+ gain), it needs to do vocals well (maybe I want something colored or maybe just big sounding), and I would like 2 channels if at all possible. Budget is upto $1100~ less is better :eek: . Like if I got the TRP for $750~ I could also get a ART PRO VLA, and patchbay. OR maybe the TRP and a SM7b.
 
From what ive heard of the TRP, it isnt colored or "euphonic"...just clean gain.
As for other pres that work with the ribbons...millennia HV-3, DAV BG-1(can have 66db of gain if you ask for it), grace 201, lachapelle992, etc..

I use the DAV and Millennia with my ribbons. DAV is more euphonic and big sounding..millennia is clean and a bit on the sterile side. you can get a millennia for around 1200 for the hv-3b, and the DAV is 700 for 2 channels.

I have 20 channels.

http://www.target-music.ch/studio/sounds.htm

SRR said:
Anyone have there hands on this yet? Got any adjectives for its sound? Warren you out there, have you tried it?

I am going to buy a pre, in the next couple of days, it has to work well with ribbons (65dB+ gain), it needs to do vocals well (maybe I want something colored or maybe just big sounding), and I would like 2 channels if at all possible. Budget is upto $1100~ less is better :eek: . Like if I got the TRP for $750~ I could also get a ART PRO VLA, and patchbay. OR maybe the TRP and a SM7b.
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I have the Sebatron VMP 2000e and like it on vox and electric guit. It sounds great with my dynamics and condensers. Don't know about ribbons, but my guess is that it would shine with those as well. It has two channels and they can be daisy-chained to add more color and gain. You can probably find one for around $1,200.

http://www.sebatron.com

You might also look into the Hamptone kits. I've been eying them for a while. I've heard nothing but great comments about the sound and build quality. Both the tube and Jfet two channel pres (assembled) are in your price range.

http://www.hamptone.com
 
SRR said:
I see you have a Chandler Germanium, have any thoughts on that for ribbon vocal use? Someone on GS suggested it.
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That isnt my site. I have 20 channels of DAV, 4 pendulum MDP-1s, 3 Millennia HV-3C, 1 hamptone.

The brunt of my work(Orchestral/Classical/Acoustic) is covered by the DAV and Pendulums. DAV more clean, pendulum, a subtle amount of distortion..
 
You could try a sytek pre which has plenty of gain for ribbon mics. I believe they have 75db of gain, maybe 70. They're decent sounding pre's: very clean, quiet, neutral and fast and run around $850 now I believe. Steve albini claims they sound superior to the Neotek Elite pre's and he's got a few syteks in his studio. They are often very useful for me when I need a nice accurate neutral pre.
 
someguy said:
You could try a sytek pre which has plenty of gain for ribbon mics. I believe they have 75db of gain, maybe 70. They're decent sounding pre's: very clean, quiet, neutral and fast and run around $850 now I believe. Steve albini claims they sound superior to the Neotek Elite pre's and he's got a few syteks in his studio. They are often very useful for me when I need a nice accurate neutral pre.
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Nope. The Syteks all report specs of 65 db gain:

http://www.sytek-audio-systems.com/products/preamps/mpt1/

http://www.sytek-audio-systems.com/products/preamps/mpx4/

http://www.sytek-audio-systems.com/products/preamps/mpx4d/

Very nice preamps (I own one). ...However, IMHO the do not have enough "umph" to record quiet sources (i.e. acoustic guitars) using a ribbon mic, only louder sources (i.e. guitar cabinet).

YMMV

-mr moon
 
If its clean gain 65dB would be enough for me, I use the ribbon on vocals and MXL 604's on acoustic guitar.
 
BigRay said:
That isnt my site. I have 20 channels of DAV, 4 pendulum MDP-1s, 3 Millennia HV-3C, 1 hamptone.

The brunt of my work(Orchestral/Classical/Acoustic) is covered by the DAV and Pendulums. DAV more clean, pendulum, a subtle amount of distortion..
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Ray, which Hamptone do you have? Do you like it?
 
SRR said:
If its clean gain 65dB would be enough for me, I use the ribbon on vocals and MXL 604's on acoustic guitar.
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I use the Sytek pres all the time for recording acoustic guitars using other mics, such as my SP C4's and even a Beyer Dynamic M69, but it just doesn't cut it for quiet sources on my ShinyBox 23L (ribbon).

However, on louder sources such as amplified guitar cabs, the Sytek works well with my 23L ...nice and clean. Might also work well for a loud vocalist as well.

-mr moon
 
tdukex said:
Ray, which Hamptone do you have? Do you like it?
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I have the HVTp2, the tube pre.

Yes, I like it a lot. Doesnt do clean very well, but is great for adding some sparkle.
 
Going with the TRP, can't lose with fullcompass pricing, they just got to get some in now. Also picking up a PRO VLA (because the TRP is so cheap), for outside of the box compression, for some flavor, not sure how that will turn out but will sell it if I don't like it, on ebay, for what I am paying for it. But boy was that Chandler Germanium was tempting, maybe for Christmas...
 
SRR said:
...Also picking up a PRO VLA (because the TRP is so cheap), for outside of the box compression, for some flavor, not sure how that will turn out...
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I have just started doing the same thing; I picked up a Pro VLA and threw some NOS Mullards in it. I have been A/B-ing some mixes using it, and it definitely adds some nice cohesive "glue" to the tunes I have run it on. I noticed that with the Mullards, the Pro VLA was a bit tighter and subtler than with the standard tubes, more "air" on top too.

-mr moon
 
What plugins do you have to compare to the VLA?

Me I have the UAD-1, so the vla has in my mind stiff competition, but we will see. But if Massive Mastering uses a VLA on some songs, hay maybe my monkey skills can get something useful out of it, maybe not, but gonna try.
 
sorry about the gain mistake. It is indeed 65db. I could have sworn they were 75, I wonder if they have changed them? I bought mine about 5 years ago. The gain is definitely clean though and I use the sytek often with ribbons. I like to use my UA 610 with them too because it has selectable impedance and it works well with the ribbons I have at 500 ohms. Hmmm, the sytek is extremely quiet I couldn't imagine having noise issues with it. Anyhow it is a good pre and a steal for 4 channels at it looks like $950 now? I got mine for around $750 back in the day. I had a VLA years ago but didn't use it for too long, I just didn't like the sound of it and actually preferred my mackie pres to the VLA. I sold the VLA and picked up a peavey VMP-2 which is a decent pre for around $600 used if you can find it, they don't make them anymore. They were around $1000 new, decent true tube preamp with transformers.
 
SRR said:
What plugins do you have to compare to the VLA?

Me I have the UAD-1, so the vla has in my mind stiff competition, but we will see. But if Massive Mastering uses a VLA on some songs, hay maybe my monkey skills can get something useful out of it, maybe not, but gonna try.
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I was just doing a direct comparison with the Sonar-integrated Sonitus Multiband Compressor which I had been running across the master bus to level things off a bit ...at very low compression levels, not squashing the crap out of it. I then took the exported stereo wavs from each test from Sonar to do some final polishing in Soundforge using Ozone. So, while this was *not* not a "real" scientific experiment, with a control and all, it was a good enough A/B test for me to hear that the VLA can be useful and help with the cohesion in some tunes.

Regardless, I think the UAD-1 almost undoubtedly has a better multiband compressor than what I was using, so it may not be quite so dramatic a difference for you as it was for me.

-mr moon
 
hey mr. moon sorry about my comments on the VLA, I actually meant the ART MPA, I've never used the VLA. I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed on this thread! The Sytek does have phantom on all four channels, plus phase reverse and mute switches, if that's what you were referring to darin2000.
 
Regardless, I think the UAD-1 almost undoubtedly has a better multiband compressor
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I don't have the multi-band compressor for my UAD-1, just the LA-2A and 1176. The multi-band plug, is $249, but if i paid for that I would want the mastering bundle that includes the MB compressor, EQ, and Limiter for $500. But before I do that I want the Neve EQ plugin ($249). Then their is the fairchild, and plate plugins. I think I will try the VLA out before I buy more plugins. lol. I got the VLA for $299 on ebay with a free MXL V67G, if I hate the MXL and decide to sell it, I can get $80+ for it so $220 for a somewhat respected hardware compressor ain't soooooooooo bad, maybe :confused: :p :o :eek: .
 
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