best mic pre for 350 or less

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rocket Boy
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Rocket Boy

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I'm looking for the best mic pre(or two if possible) for sound alone, that we can get for under 350. This will be used as kind of everything. probably more important to me for acoustic guitars, drums and vocals though. i know these kinds of questions are asked alot. i'm sorry! right now we're using mackie's...

you can hear some records we've done with the mackies at www.hazzle.net/music.html for the Dewey Decibel EP... if that helps...
 
If I were you, I'd save your money until you can afford at least an RNP, or better still, some flavour of Great River.......

You're not going to see any difference between anything you buy under $350, and the Mackie you're currently using now.
 
the 350 limit sort of strict though... and 350 seems like it would be opening it up a bit more than the "best mic pre under 150 dollars" kind of thing... or is it really? is a presonus mp20 for 300 going to be a good buy... or any other suggestions? i hate to think that unless is spend 500+ im throwing away the money.
 
Rocket Boy said:
the 350 limit sort of strict though... and 350 seems like it would be opening it up a bit more than the "best mic pre under 150 dollars" kind of thing... or is it really?
Click to expand...
IMO, no - it isn't......


Rocket Boy said:
is a presonus mp20 for 300 going to be a good buy...
Click to expand...
The MP20 is not bad, but is a *big* improvement on the Mackie? A bit maybe, not by a whole lot..... I still think you' be better served by waiting and saving until you can make the upgrade REALLY worthwhile and noticeable....

I've used Mackie pres - they aren't exciting, and not overly detailed - but they are eminently usable.
 
okay, you're alot more knowledgable than me and i dont want to throw hundreds of dollars away :) i believe you. any specific suggestions? we really dig the beatles, weezer, ben folds 5, alot of indie rock stuff... so we're sort of looking for that kind of sound i guess. we just wanna sound good. i know that's a relative term, but still.
 
To be honest with you, there should be no reason you can't sound "good" with what you've got now........ when your engineering skills exceed that calibre of your current gear is really when you should look at upgrading.

But if you're not able to sound "good" with a basic Mackie and digital recording technology, this points more to skills than gear.......

Seriously - this isn't an insult.... but it doesn't sound like you've reached the point of "gear limitations" yet -- you probably need more practice and better understanding of proper techniques for tracking and mixing. Maybe invest in more books to help with your engineering techinques. I'll bet you'd be surprised at how good your current setup starts to sound.

BTW - how do I know this? Take a listen to some of the clips at my site -- most were mixed (not necessarily tracked, however) thru a Mackie 8-buss....
 
well it's not that i dont think they sound good, i'm pretty happy with most of what i do really. i'd just like to kind of "kick it up a notch" so to speak, because some things dont seem to sound to right even though im micing them the same way with the same mics that we've gone to professional studios with and our tracking room sounds about as good as the last place we went... so i thought maybe this was a part of it.

overall though im pretty happy with what we've achieved thus far. thanks for the advice. i'll take more experimenting before spending more into serious consideration. i mean, i've been following all the bluebearsound tutorials i can get my hands on - so we know im on the right track ;-) :-D
 
I'd agree with Blue Bear. You are not going to see anything truly significant in improving your sound until you hit around the $500 level. Are you taking the sound out at the inserts on your Mackie to bypass the EQ section? If not, then try it. That's one way you can improve your sound now.
 
Ok you guys have totally sold me on a Great River and I wasn't even part of this disscussion. buttttt...... i have a question. I have a FW-1884 that i'm liking a lot. I know the 1884 has mic pre's built in. is this going to be a problem when using it with a great river? I mean i'm sure it will work.. but what kind of things should i watch out for and will it sound odd going through 2 pre's? any input would be excellent. thanks a lot.

jay.

i should add that i've never had any other mic pre except for the one in my f-1884. And that i'm not terribly un-happy with them. But i'm at this point addicted to buying stuido crap. hahahaha
 
You can run your good pre through the input on the 1884 with the 1884 pre turned all the way down but you'll be still using the 1884 pres just a bit. You'll still hear the difference though. I'm using a Sytek and RNP like that and it sounds great. Or you can get a good converter and run your good pre through there and use the s/pdif input or the adat input. That's the way to bypass the 1884 pres and converter.
 
<$300 pres

Hello all!

newbie to the board. glad to be here.

my $.02 on this topic doesnt stray from whats been said. there are a lot of great mic pres out there. the truth is, too many! but this is a great thing. if you have the credit, go out and experiment. they all have their own personality. some are colorless (transparent), while some will add their own flavor. IMHO i have a TC Electronic Gold Channel, which to me is absolutely amazing since it has really great presets. why am I telling you about a mic pre that sells for up to $2000? I dont know, but the bottom line is YOU ONLY SOUND AS GOOD AS YOUR WEAKEST LINK! mic pres are great, but what if youre using a mic that is shite? maybe you WANT to use a mic that sounds like shite? going for the retro/beatlesque sounds you might want such a thing. but honestly, if you are confident in your engineering skills and feel you want to up on your gear, there is no true way then to lay it down for the good stuff. keep in mind there is several brackets of gear: the $100-499 pres (Behringer, Presonus Blue Tubes, ART, etc), then you have the $500-999 wide range (some dbx, Focusrites, Presonus Digimax, Joe Meek, Belari, etc), then you have the mid to uppers $1000-1899 (Drawmer, TC Electronic, Avalon, Univeral Audio, and many more). Hell, I love rack gear and know the importance when recording but it is going to be tough for me to shell out $3000+ one day for a tube compressor. But if i want the greatest, i got to get the greatest. But great studio skill and experience is the only thing one can obtain to truly notice the difference from the mid to upper range systems.

evaluate your skills completely then measure that against your wallet. determine what you REALLY need, then make a informed judsgement where your hard earned cash is to go.

ive said nothing earth-shattering here. i just like talking shop.
 
Another route for under $350...

Get a used DBX 760X for under $100 on ebay.
Make sure it has the original wall wart, if posssible.

Then have Jim Williams at www.audioupgrades.com modify at least one of the channels. The DBX 760X has a better external housing that the Symetrix SX-202, although Jim also mods that one too. (partly as the DBX has XLR outs) You could mod the other channel later on if you wish.

His website hasn't been updated for a long time when last looking at it,
so you may want to ask what he's charging nowadays.

The result is reputed to be quite a fine pro pre that'll destroy the Mackie or
Presonus pre's. Very clean/accurate and "fast" in character supposedly.

Just a thought.

Chris

P.S. Jim's a nice guy to talk to over the phone BTW.
 
I have to clue in on one phrase... Sound Right. Elaborate???

I have used the best and the worse gear. Right is a subjective term. For me when you say not right, it means re aim your mics. You can just duplicate what you see cuz every room IS DIFFERENT. you have to work on duplicating what you hear or improving on that.
 
yeh. great river. is it ? how i wish i could afford one.
in the interim rocket boy check out a pdf of a mic pre you can build for 20 bucks. linear technology ..LT1115 pdf.
in a few pages of the pdf is a low impedence mic pre schematic.
i found subbing a op37 or a max437 sounded nicer to my ears anyway. dont know why. if your nice to linear or maxim or other op amp vendors
you can get free samples to try. BUT TAKE A ADULT ELECTRONICS COURSE
for your own safety. just take the output of the LT!!!% circuit into a line mixer to control gain to the sound card. you could build a rack of these.
ive built lots of diy pre's. eg the song (and many others) i'm too old to rock and roll at soundclick.com/bmanning.
for free op amp samples try analog devices, and rexas instruments and national semiconductor as well. also these guys have tech support teams that are helpfull to diy mic pre builders like myself. found them very helpfull.
peace.
 
should have read TEXAS INSTRUMENTS.
also try a llundahl transformer followed by an op37 stage. could be a great combo if diy'd right.
by the way if you want to compare diy pre to a TOP PRE in a top studio console. listen to the song take my love on the same sight or H lady.
not much diff tween high end console and diy imho.
peace.
ps. also look around the net for TAOS mic pre schematic.
a jlm audios 990 op amps. the latter are SUPER COOL.
 
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