different pres for different drums?

[robin watson]

Posting this on behalf of a friend. He's aiming for a very clean drum sound. We've recorded so far with cheap, homemade preamps, through a Mackie, and the latest trial was an Audient 8-channel.

The cheap pres lacked headroom but had a colored sound I quite liked but he didn't; the Mackie pres were clearer but we both agreed were kind of sterile; the Audient 8 gave us some nice results, nice and clear. I mention this just to illustrate the kind of experience we've had so far.

I'm wondering just how much better it gets. He's willing to step up the budget if it reflects in the results.

I've heard Blue Bear is an advocate of using individual pres for different drums before, which sounds like good practice. Just wondered if anyone else out there is has opinions on certain preamps for certain drum applications.

Cheers.

 

[boingoman]

Those are cool sounds you got. I, too, liked that kind of "splatty" drum sound.

That Audient box looks nice, and gets good reviews. If it is clean and good, the next thing is character, I guess. Some pres have a reputation for drums. If you are getting good, clean, usable sounds it might be hard to improve on that without spending $$. API makes an 8 channel box, but it is a lot more dough, and very clean as well.

Some of the classics (which I have not used but will glady talk about) are API and Audix pres on drums. Great tone, lots of character, apparently. Very spendy for originals, at least API. Some companies make reissues, at $500 US a channel.


You could always get two nice channels for kick and snare, like a Great River, which supposedly kills on just about everything, and keep your nice Audient as well.

Over the next year or so my goal is to build a rack of these, two Neves, two Jensens, and four APIs.

I mostly just wanted to say hi. Someone else will have to chime in with actual knowledge.

 

[robin watson]

Happy New Year, Boingoman!

Great to hear from you, B. And thanks for the Seventh Circle preamp link, it looks like a really interesting option - I'll pass on the info, which I'm sure Sasha will be very interested in taking a look at.

The older recordings, when I listen to them now, sound like they could do with a remix! - the new stuff sounds nicer through the Soundcraft 6000.

All the best,
Robin.

 

[Henri Devill]

Im really likeing the OSA C's on kik and snare Great River NV's for rack toms and the OSA A's on overheads..you can read about them here www.atlasproaudio.com pretty good value for a lunchbox type 'O setup..good luck