ANybody here think High End Pre's are Overrated?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadMax
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cavedog101 said:
You had a LOT of ear training to be able to appreciate the difference. This is something that 90% of the folks on here will not have. Not meant as a slight....on the contrary, its what we all need and as Harvey said originally..'a lot of people on here havent learned to use the gear they have'.... There is no magic bullet. There is hour upon hour upon hour of simply hearing and trying different things and searching....Its the only college that really teaches.....
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I personally will not take that as a slight, but more as a compliment. There is some truth to that as well. There was definately a time in my career where I would not notice as much of a difference. In hindsight though, there was a lot of gear over the years I wish I had not bought. I wish I had just skipped buying a few cheaper pieces and saved and got something better from the get go. The way I look at it now, is that if you do buy something nicer now instead, you may not be able to fully take advantage of it quite yet. However, it will be there and grow with you as you do. High end equipment holds its resale much much better than cheap stuff, and it can stay with you for much longer (making its money back through its use. I also believe that getting some of that stuff actually helps to train you faster as well since your limitation at that becomes your own experience and not the gear that you are using. In the end, I can not see regretting getting some good solid pre's, as long as you have the means to do it.
 
rsolinski said:
Max...you won't regret it! Nothing is a magic bullet but these will make mixing so much easier...less eq etc...what are you using for a comp?

Ray
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Well, that's next I guess. I'm looking at Distressors. Right now, I've got a RNC which doesn't have much character and a Symetrix 522 which doesn't have any makeup gain (WTF?).
 
Some probably are, all are if they are the only high end gear in your signal path.
 
MadMax said:
DUH! So he's being humorous...
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No, he's being serious, the point being that he believes that high-end pres are overrated if the rest of your signal chain is weaker. What he is really getting at is the old chestnut 'only as good as the weakest link'.
 
Gotcha. Well, I hope the RME Fireface isn't going to be the bottleneck.
 
ah - the great part about highend pres is the CAN be the only thing in your chain besides the mic while tracking. a HUGE bonus, sonically.

Mike
 
bigtoe said:
ah - the great part about highend pres is the CAN be the only thing in your chain besides the mic while tracking. a HUGE bonus, sonically.

Mike
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A good pre AND a good mic with decent A/D converters will be a major improvement. For tracking, good gear is definitely a bonus, you can't remove noise without harming the rest of the sound wave to some degree. Mastering polishes the product, it doesnt remove dings, scratches and dents.
 
agreed! i was thinkin gof my 8 track otari days.

i'd still say that a good mic pre with an ADAT is well worth the cost of the mic pre.

good mics are so cheap now a days. give me an adat, 3 57's, a d112 and 2 603s or 012's and a mackie i'll make a pretty good sounding record.

get me my preamps and it will sound way better thru no fault of my own. :eek: :D

have a good weekend.

Mike
 
Harvey Gerst said:
Mic placement, and really knowing your equipment, can accomplish a lot towards getting a high end sound, even in a shitty room with shitty monitors. Once you really learn how to use what you have, what you still need will become very apparent.
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A lot of good input and advice here...but this is the best IMO.
 
I think that---colored pres notwithstanding---there is a sort of diminishing return involved. The difference between a lousy pre and a good pre is much more than the difference between a good pre and a great pre, which, in turn, is less than the difference between a great pre and a "boutique" pre.
 
Right..not much attitude with an RNC..just clean compression...a Distressor is EXTREMELY versatile..you won't regret that one either...just make sure you take your time to learn the gear before passing any judgements..although the pre's are pretty much plug 'n go...and yes, Harvey is the man!

Ray
 
High end preamps

Any one ever recorded with the Apogee mini mp? The stereo MS feature looks really cool too...

I am considering an A&H Mix Wiz, but I have a Mackie VLZ 6 input and Behringer tube pre 2 input I can stick with to track the drums for the moment and just use the Apogee for everything else if it's worth it (skimp on the other channels just to score one great stereo pre).

Opinions?
 
I have in the past compared high end mic pre's to vintage guitars. I have owned about every vintage guitar there is to have, from a 59 les paul burst to D'Angelico round hole archtop. For me, yes , there is a lot of hype. Old guitars much less worthy of the hype IMO. My 59 sunburst was cool at the time(1983).It was the holy grail.. I played it maybe twice, it was no big deal, sold to very large collector for hefty sum. Mind you it makes me sick at the price of them today> Mic pre's on the other hand are a different animal. An average guitar in the hand of a skilled player can make it sing.Even a crappy guitar will shine . A highend mic pre at the hands of a hack engineer....uh... not the same results. A very skilled engineer with a class A pre.......nice. Real nice :)
 
hackin' it

jmorris said:
A highend mic pre at the hands of a hack engineer....uh... not the same results. A very skilled engineer with a class A pre.......nice. Real nice :)
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So you mean me being a hack engineer, the upgrade to the apogee or allen and heath from the sterile mackie vlz and behringer won't yield any better results.....:(

Even using my Blue mic and Audio Technica AE2500's?

$%^$%&^$%&$%^&#.......

:)
 
sbcgroup2 said:
Any one ever recorded with the Apogee mini mp? The stereo MS feature looks really cool too...

I am considering an A&H Mix Wiz, but I have a Mackie VLZ 6 input and Behringer tube pre 2 input I can stick with to track the drums for the moment and just use the Apogee for everything else if it's worth it (skimp on the other channels just to score one great stereo pre).

Opinions?
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I don't know the Apogee, but regarding the A&H, that isn't a huge upgrade in terms of pres alone. Overall it's a nice board, the pres are good, EQ is nice, but in terms of pres alone, you'd get better quality for less money with a couple of channels of good pres.
 
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