Avalon

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Adzzz

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I'm upgrading and I'm undecided as to which mic pre-amp to buy first. It's a choice between the Avalon 737 and the Avalon 2022. I record a lot of vocals, guitars, bass, keys(sampler), bass guitar and sometimes live drums. I've heard the 737 used purely as a voice channel and it's just brilliant...but the 2022 has gotten some amazing reviews, and has 2 channels meaning I can run almost everything through it e.g. the sampler/keys (important for me - stereo LR) through it as well as stereo guitars, etc. I can't afford them both at the same time, but one will follow the other in the next 6-9 months.

The majority of what I record is rock/pop/top 40 charts orientated, Bryan Adams, Anastasia, Avril Lavigne styles. I'm recording with a Tascam TM-D8000 digital console and DA-38s sync'd to Logic. I have some nice outboard FX (Lexicon PCM81 & MXP-1), but the only dynamic processors I have are the onboard dynamics of the TM-D8000 (not so bad) and a Behringer Composer compressor. Monitors are Yammy NS-10Ms. Unfortunately, the only mic pre-amp I own is a Behringer Ultra-Gain Pro, which is good for next to nothing apart from maybe as a DI for bass guitar.

Next month, we want to start recording an album for a summer release. Bearing in mind that I can only afford to buy one mic pre-amp before starting the album here is...

My question:
Cosidering my current situation and music style, which pre-amp will better serve my uses right now?

I'd be really grateful to hear your opinions or suggestions
 
I would think twice about either of these gven the type of music. I have heard these two and they are rather bland sounding for pop, rock or ballads. For classical music, yeah I might consider one. In this price range there are a lot of choices I would go with first. Phoenix, John Hardy, Great River especially if you are considering Bryan Adams type music. You will want warm and toasty versus neutral I would think.

My two cents.
 
For a unit that will cover a lot of ground take a look at the Langevin Dual Vocal Combo - $1600

http://mercenary.com/landualvocco.html

This has decent preamps, high and low eq, and a nice opto compressor, similar in design to the Avalon 737, but better. This comp works well for vocals, basses, some guitars.

For more compression on a budget look at the FMR Audio RNC - a steal at $200

http://mercenary.com/realniccom.html

This comp works amazingly well for drums, acoustic guitars, percussion, vocals, and you can even run your mix through it (in "Super Nice Mode"). And for 2 bills each you can afford to buy a couple three of them.
 
still unsure...

thanks for the replies guys. I actually had already considered a couple of the pres you've suggested. Funnily enough, the websites for the Great River and John Hardy pre-amps are full of claims like "uncolored", "neutral" and "transparent". I actually don't mind a bit of color in my life :-)

The 737 sounds a touch colored to me, but just a touch...a nice touch The 2022's supposed to be more transparent and uncolored.

Ahhhh, decisions, decisions....

Anyone else care to share an opinion?

Fletcher? You there?

Adzzz
 
Consider Pendulum MDP-1. I can say that I am tracking most of an album through Avalon AD2022, but it's mostly acoustic folk/jazz/Celtic. I would hardly call the Avalon "bland". It is a great preamp. The variable input impedence is very cool. I would like it better if it had digital output and 1/4" trs line I/O's. It's a pain in the ass to get good XLR to TS cables to patch up an RNC to it. So I mostly run it through TC Electronics M300 for A-D conversion, and bypass the FX. Occasionally I even use the M300 to lightly compress the Avalon. Mostly, I use DBX386 for wicked clean (cleaner than the Avalon), Joemeek twinQ when I want color or I want to flatter something that is a little weak, and the Avalon whwn I want something to sound better than it sounds. While Joemeek takes the rough corners off of sound, the Avalon makes things stand out. Good luck, these high end pres are basically cool and any of the ones mentioned above will improve your sound and make recording easier. One thing the Avalon does do is make cheap dynamic mics sound real good.-Richie
 
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