art tube pre

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The Flame

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ey guys, wanted to know if the $40 tube pre by art is any good. i heard some good thigns about it, and some bad things. in this studio by my house, electrc plant studios, the bass sounded so warm, as well as the vocals and the guy recommended it. i saw a thing about mic pre's and the guys said $300 wont get you anywhere. that scared me shitless, lol. i am using a firepod, and a akg perecption 200, recording anything from acoustic to thrash metal. give me a holla.
Josh
 
I think what NL5 is saying, is that it is a $40 pre amp, so how good can you expect it to sound?
 
The Flame said:
the bass sounded so warm
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Other than a pack of new strings, it's the best investment for 40$ you can make for getting kick ass bass tones. It really does work quite well for that.
It's cheap enough that "save up and get something better" doesnt really apply. Lay off McDonalds for a few weeks and theres your ART money :D
It's really good at what it does, and is a perfectly adequete spare channel for a mic amp when you do save up and buy something else.
 
There also cool if you have a DIY mentality.

My buddy modded my Tube MP and shes a sweetheart!

-Blaze
 
The MP may offer a different flavor, but it's probably not any "better" than the pres in the firepod.
 
teainthesahara said:
Other than a pack of new strings, it's the best investment for 40$ you can make for getting kick ass bass tones. It really does work quite well for that.
It's cheap enough that "save up and get something better" doesnt really apply. Lay off McDonalds for a few weeks and theres your ART money :D
It's really good at what it does, and is a perfectly adequete spare channel for a mic amp when you do save up and buy something else.
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Well said! Yes, for $40 it's a good DI, and a viable alternative color and texture as a mic pre. Best of all, it doesn't rob you of a couple hundred bucks for still not good enough. I'd say get it, and then start saving for a really good pre up the road.
 
One thing that I will say about the MP is it is very clear.
I have used some cheaper pre's that sound harsh or slightly driven. But the ART stuff always sound pretty good to my ear. Maybe it because thats the first Pre I ever owned. :o

-Blaze
 
You'd have to spend waaaaay more to get a better-sounding DI box.

But NL5 is right, in that he is reminding me more of myself. He's damn good looking these days.
.
 
chessrock said:
But NL5 is right, in that he is reminding me more of myself. He's damn good looking these days.
.
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Yep, we are quite good looking. I'm just a younger, slightly more handsome version of you....... :D
 
blazingstrings said:
I have used some cheaper pre's that sound harsh or slightly driven.....
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There are pres cheaper than $40???????? :eek:
 
NL5 said:
Yep, we are quite good looking. I'm just a younger, slightly more handsome version of you....... :D
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You guys both look like you've seen the business end of a Quisinart.
 
chessrock said:
You'd have to spend waaaaay more to get a better-sounding DI box.
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I agree. Plug your passive Precision or Jazz into an ART TubeMP pre, then plug the output of the pre into your favorite recorder/sound card, and you're ready to capture nice, fat, "round" bass tracks.

And, as long as you go easy on the input gain (the red LED blinking only occasionally), it will offer you another tonal color for your mic.

Worth $40? Definately.
 
Hi there, I'm new here. I 've just bought a 6 channel Soundcraft mixer and a Behringer Direct box. Can anybody tell me if I need to use a preamp device before the DI? If is the case, any suggestion on preamp gear? I forgot to mention, I play death metal and I use heavy distortion on my guitar. Thanks.
 
Well, yes and no!

killthepixel said:
Hi there, I'm new here. I 've just bought a 6 channel Soundcraft mixer and a Behringer Direct box. Can anybody tell me if I need to use a preamp device before the DI? If is the case, any suggestion on preamp gear? I forgot to mention, I play death metal and I use heavy distortion on my guitar. Thanks.
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If you're using the DI with a bass, no; you'd plug your guitar cable into your bass, then the other end into the input of the DI, then the output of the DI into one channel of your mixer or soundcard.

If you're playing a guitar through a distirtion box, you can plug your guitar into the disortion box, then plug the output of the distortion box into a channel of your mixer without using your DI.

Or, if you're doing a mic/direct thing, put a mic in front of your amp; plug the mic into one channel of your mixer. Then plug your guitar into the direct box (DI); take the 1/4" output of the DI and connect it to your distortion box, then from the distortion box output to the input of your amp. Plug an XLR cable (mic cable) into the XLR output of the DI and connect the other end of that cable to a different input of your mixer. You can then mix the distorted signal from your amp (through the mic) with the clean signal (from you direct box). ;)
 
I see... third case is the best of all, think I'm gonna get a more solid and complete sound of my guitar doing this procedure.

What about second case? I think is better to connect the output of the distortion box to a DI and THEN to the mixer with an XLR cable.

And the preamp? Lol... so I don't have the need to use it?
 
killthepixel said:
I see... third case is the best of all, think I'm gonna get a more solid and complete sound of my guitar doing this procedure.

What about second case? I think is better to connect the output of the distortion box to a DI and THEN to the mixer with an XLR cable.

And the preamp? Lol... so I don't have the need to use it?
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I think your distortion box might be a mismatch for your direct box, resulting in unacceptable gain and/or distortion (of the wrong kind)... you could try it, but frankly, if you don't want to use your amp, you can just plug the output of your distortion box directly into a 1/4" input of one of the mixer channels.

Regarding preamps... each XLR input channel of your mixer has a preamp built into it. So, if you're using your mixer, then sending the mixer outputs to your recorder/soundcard inputs, you're already "preamplifying" the signals.

If you wanted to eliminate using your mixer, you could send your mic'ed signal to a separate preamp, then send the output of the separate preamp to the recorder/soundcard input, either as an analog signal (through a 1/4", 1/8", RCA or XLR connector, whatever your recorder/soundcard input is), or as a digital signal, as long as the separate mic preamp has a digital output and your recorder/soundcard has a digital input (USB, USB2, firewire, etc.).
 
USB, USB2 and firewire qualify as digital inputs now? Not that I have any experience at all with USB or firewire interfaces, but I believe the fact remains that they have analog inputs on the devices themselves. I'm of the mindset that he would want to look for the optical or SPDIF inputs for any digital signal. I could be, and usually am wrong though. :)
 
Creamyapples1 said:
USB, USB2 and firewire qualify as digital inputs now? Not that I have any experience at all with USB or firewire interfaces, but I believe the fact remains that they have analog inputs on the devices themselves. I'm of the mindset that he would want to look for the optical or SPDIF inputs for any digital signal. I could be, and usually am wrong though. :)
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Most people associate USB, USB2, firewire and other similar protocols with computors, so it's not unusual to refer to those protocols "digital". If you want to put a sharp point on it, the data/signal being sent/transmitted through those connectors/cables may or may not be purely digital, but it's not unusual to refer to those connectors/cables as "digital" types, in that they aren't the more common connector types (like 1/4", RCA, XLR, 1/8" mini, etc.) normally associated with analog signals. :cool:
 
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