ART Prochannel, Gold, Brick&RNP?

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audiophilez

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I am interested in picking up a decent mic pre, I have heard good things about the brick, RNP and not so much the ART MPA Gold or Prochannel. I would like a rack mount witch is what the ART's are but if the brick(and perhaps an RNP to go with it for "cleaner" tones) are better tone quality, I will buy them hands down. The fact I dont hear much about ART in general leads me to believe they may have good value but not as advanced tonal characteristics(Though maybe I am wrong). any input on whats the better investment as far as tone goes(features are not my thing, only tone), I would appriciate greatly!!!! By the way, I play guitar, bass, drums, I mic amps and vocals, instruments(pretty much all mic applications!)

me
 
I can only comment on the Prochannel cuz that's all I have of the ones you mentioned.
So far, I've used it on vox, snare, bass guitar and ac guitar and am pretty happy with the results.

The compressors not too bad although a bit noisy with the makeup gain cranked and I like the sound of the pre with and without the tube section. I usually run it just touching the red with a steady yellow display. The EQ section isn't that great (imho) but it is useable. For the money, a good unit.

fwiw.......... :cool:
 
If you're thinking ART, have a look at the Digital MPA, good converters on a nice unit with some nice useful features. I am pleased with mine.
 
Can you switch the prochannel off of compressor or is that noise you are reffering to just a biproduct of the prochannel no matter how you use it. does anybody know "hands down"(hard term to use with pro audio) mpa gold or prochannel? Prochannel is supposedly all art's rack features in one unit. Though what it boasts in multifunctionality it may lack in overall tone capabilities. maybe im wrong, at this point I seem to believe buying the brick and rnp together would be a good all around combination. The brick for tubey sound and RNP for non tubey sound. If The prochannel or gold can match the tone, I would go for it. rackmount is very convieniant in the recording world but it takes a backseat to tone in my opinion.
 
"If you're thinking ART, have a look at the Digital MPA, good converters on a nice unit with some nice useful features. I am pleased with mine."

maybe the brick and a digital MPA may not be a bad combo. I could not have only a digital simply for the fact I love tube so much. But digital mpa and brick may be somewhat Ideal for my situation. sounds like a lot of tonal possibilities.
 
ART sucks don't buy ART that's my two cents. the signal to noise ratio sucks on 95% of the stuff they sell.
 
ART sucks don't buy ART that's my two cents. the signal to noise ratio sucks on 95% of the stuff they sell.
Click to expand...

Where did you get that number? It seems from what I have read the Gold MPA, Pro Channel, and Pro VLA are half way decent, but I have no experience with any of them. But I sure would like to try the Pro Channel and M-Audio Tampa next to each other.
 
dbx 286a... I just ordered my 2nd one. Very good pre! not expensive
 
Go Brick

I've had the brick for 6 months and even though it has one gain knob, I'm still realizing what a versitle and valuable tool it can be for any gear collection. I compare it to an avalon. . .yeah, it's that good. I use mine on Voice, Bass (excells) and guitar. . . sounds rich adds an element of depth to the sound. Used it on a piano once, wasn't that impressed. Otherwise, clean and built like a brick shit house. . .buy one and you'll want another. . .
 
so, from my best gathering so far it seems buying a brick or two for my "tubey" warm sounds is a solid investment. now for my clean, im torn between RNP and DBX 286A(im sorry ART, the ultimately negative vibe I pick up from researching you has led me to not give you the chance to try and shine), I just want a as close-to-crystal clear non-tube as possible in the price range. I basically want equipment I will not want to replace 2 months after I bought it like Iv done way too much! I thank all of you for you input, I think this is one of the more valuable discussions on this forum, I get tired of all around wishy washy discussions or the ones comparing 2 or 3 crappy products to see witch one is less crappy, if there were more talks like this, there would be less crappy home recordings.
 
ART stuff sucks, point blank don't buy ART!!!!! it sucks I'm telling you first hand right now....
 
Focusrite TrakMaster Pro?
I have the ART Gold MPA and use the Focusrite more.
BG/HSG
 
I'm not a big fan of the Focusrite pres. I find them a bit "sterile" and thin (other might describe that as "clean", dunno)
 
pmdiaz23 ..... no offense, but as owner of a 286a I would have to describe the sound of that pre as such ...... imagine a completely transparent sounding pre and hook a mic to it.... then take a sock and put it over the mic and it will sound roughly like it would if you ran it through a 286a.

If you're looking for "crystal clear" then I would strongly recommend NOT getting a 286a.

I do still use mine if I have to or sometimes as a pre for kick drum bc you can use the hi/low freq enhancer section as a pseudo EQ..... but honestly my Audio Buddy pre-amp is at least twice as clean and versitile as the 286a. Very colored (veiled) in a not-so-good way.

Granted they are inexpensive but so are a lot of other much better sounding and more versitile preamps. DMP3 VTB-1.

I have used the ART Pro Channel some and I found it to be very nice sounding (colored but not heavily) ... "warm" but clear and detailed... and has shitloads of gain. I used it on guitars, vocals, and keyboards (cranked and smashed .... fun sound) and it sounded great ....not transparent for sure but colored in a good sounding way.

I'm not entirely sure, but I believe the ART MPA is a completely different preamp design (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and have not used it so I cant say how it sounds.

I also own the ART VLA compressor and it is a great compressor used by quite a few of us here on this forum. Saying ART stuff sucks as a blanket statement is simply not true in my opinion.

I have not had a chance to use the RNP either but based on all of the the praise given on various forums .... sounds like a great bang-for-buck pre.

As for Focusrite.... I agree with Giganova. I had the Penta for a while and sterile is exactly the word I would use to desribe it .... apparently all of the Platinum series use the same preamp circut. It did have a nice faux tube saturation knob which I thought sounded really good although not actually tube-like. I guess you could say its very clean sounding but it just kinda seemed to make everything sound smaller and wimpier.

From what I've read the Grace preamps are know for their transparency and completely un-colored sound.

You may want to check those out.


-mike
 
killmachine said:
ART sucks don't buy ART that's my two cents. the signal to noise ratio sucks on 95% of the stuff they sell.
Click to expand...

what a thing to say, I guess you'd say that to those pro engineers who have used ART gear to help in the production of successful albums then?

Go post that comment on gearslutz and see what happens...

Cheers,
Don
 
homestudioguy said:
Focusrite TrakMaster Pro?
I have the ART Gold MPA and use the Focusrite more.
BG/HSG
Click to expand...

actually they're both excellent pres, focusrite sounds simply AMAZING with certain mics, mpa gold sounds so beautiful on many others. Great pres, I own and use them both, along with a germanium (which is amazing of course, but I can't afford more than one, anyway the other pres are equals in many ways but with different tonal characteristics, also the focusrite and mpa don't sound as good on as many different mics as the chandler does, but they're still incredible on certain mics and better than the germanium on 1 mic in particular).

Just my personal experience, no big deal here. Yea, art stuff sucks ass, it's terrible, please keep saying that to keep the price down so those of us with ears can keep buying it at rock bottom prices to stock our studios.

I'd take an MPA gold over a brick any day, hate the brick, very unmusical sound to me on most of my mics, just can't see the point in owning it. Had one, sold it. Kept the mpa and the trackmaster pro. Cheap pres? sometimes great pres as well. Use your ears, not your bias against a particular company because of the gear they sold 20 years ago.

Cheers,
Don
 
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From what I'm seeing on this board, ART is villified about as much as the Rode product. Neither deserve such distain. Both (in the right hands and set up correctly) can render professional results. Now if I'm insulting someone here....well....so be it. On a lark, with some extra cash in my pocket one day, I picked up a ART TPS-II Preamp. I fully expected to hate it, and feel it denegrated the sound of my recordings. It completely surprised me with providing dead quiet rich tone to any mic I tried, as it has fully adjustable impedance as well as a considerable number of variable settings for the tube plate voltages, modifying the tones considerably, and making for a very versatile output for just about anything desired, from acoustic and electric guitar to vocals. Sure....it's no Great River, nor is it a John Hardy, but there is no reason to knock it for what it does well. I have no reason to believe that their upper line units would do any less, and most likely more.
 
I have a GT Brick, Trackmaster pro, and an ART DPS II they all have different uses and do certain things well but I would not want to have any of the 3 as my only selection. The brick doesn't have enough gain for certain mics a la transformerless dynamics/ribbons. The Trackmaster Pro has absolutely no color at all (that can be good in some circumstances). The ART has a lot of color but it also has a lot of gain on tap so you can push a low output mic hard. I dunno, none of them are great but they all have strenghts and weaknesses. To say that all ART stuff sucks is not an educated statement IMO. I will admit that their lower end products are weak but some of their stuff is really worth the money
 
Art stuff can be kind of hit / miss. There are sometimes issues with S/N ratio, RF rejection, as well as DC offset. I am impressed, though, with the designs and the components they use in their rackmount stuff (Pro VLA, MPA, etc.).

It's a tough call, but I have seen evidence supporting both sides (that it is good gear, and that it can possibly suck), so they're sort of an anomaly.
.
 
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