giraffe
i love negative rep
wish someone would have done this a while ago (like, someone else)
recently i finally bought an electro harmonics 12ay7 single channel mic pre, here are my impressions.
we'll call this the "plusses" section.
in a couple of shoot outs (all comparisons were made against a fmr rnp)
bass git : (re27)
vs the rnp- i liked the top end better (was much smoother) but the low mids seemed a touch on the fuzzy side to me (nothing big) client liked it better so we ended up using it. over all surprisingly nice "warm" sound.
rock vox: (nt2a)
once again the top end was "smoother" sounding to us both (different guy) but having the low mids a little fuzzy was kinda nice on this voice. winner.
rap vox: (at4033)
preferred the clarity and the low-end of the rnp (i think a little bit of sub 100hz may get lost in the 12ay7, or maybe the before mentioned low mid fuzziness just makes it seem so in comparison)
distorted git (les paul, jcm 800, sm57)
kinda liked the 12ay7 a little better. somewhat more "contained" (sorry about the obtuse terms) the low mid thing seemed ok here.
call this the "this sucks"
since the git was the first really loud source i used it on it came up here.
distortion. of a very annoying kind too.
foreword to keyboard.
i used a key board because i could (via the keyboards volume control) very carefully control the input volume of the 12ay7.
once again i used the rnp as a control, assume i had none of the following problems on the rnp, because i didn't.
with loud sources the 12ay7 distorts, and i don't really know much about electronics but it's happening at the input.
(lowering the keyboard volume and increasing the gain on the pre eliminates the distortion.)
loud sources (like the keyboard-di-12a7 or big amp-sm57)
when the keyboard was above 2/3 volume the 12ay7 would distort, no matter how little gain i used, also, the distortion was not happening as a result of the gain i suspect it was happening directly at the input.
(again the rnp was fine at the same levels)
the distortion starts happening relatively early, and will probably noticeably limit my use of this pre.
i bought a 10db line pad which will hopefully increase the usefulness of the unit.
oh, one more thing. the first 1/5 of gain is nearly useless anyhow because in that area the volume rushes up quickly and cannot be set easily.
for the record, i was using the XLR output and not the 1/4 inch.
Synopsis, sounds very good given it’s price (much better than any tube pre i've ever owned..... but that club is very limited and cheep), but it’s usefulness is limited by what can only be seen as a design flaw.
recently i finally bought an electro harmonics 12ay7 single channel mic pre, here are my impressions.
we'll call this the "plusses" section.
in a couple of shoot outs (all comparisons were made against a fmr rnp)
bass git : (re27)
vs the rnp- i liked the top end better (was much smoother) but the low mids seemed a touch on the fuzzy side to me (nothing big) client liked it better so we ended up using it. over all surprisingly nice "warm" sound.
rock vox: (nt2a)
once again the top end was "smoother" sounding to us both (different guy) but having the low mids a little fuzzy was kinda nice on this voice. winner.
rap vox: (at4033)
preferred the clarity and the low-end of the rnp (i think a little bit of sub 100hz may get lost in the 12ay7, or maybe the before mentioned low mid fuzziness just makes it seem so in comparison)
distorted git (les paul, jcm 800, sm57)
kinda liked the 12ay7 a little better. somewhat more "contained" (sorry about the obtuse terms) the low mid thing seemed ok here.
call this the "this sucks"
since the git was the first really loud source i used it on it came up here.
distortion. of a very annoying kind too.
foreword to keyboard.
i used a key board because i could (via the keyboards volume control) very carefully control the input volume of the 12ay7.
once again i used the rnp as a control, assume i had none of the following problems on the rnp, because i didn't.
with loud sources the 12ay7 distorts, and i don't really know much about electronics but it's happening at the input.
(lowering the keyboard volume and increasing the gain on the pre eliminates the distortion.)
loud sources (like the keyboard-di-12a7 or big amp-sm57)
when the keyboard was above 2/3 volume the 12ay7 would distort, no matter how little gain i used, also, the distortion was not happening as a result of the gain i suspect it was happening directly at the input.
(again the rnp was fine at the same levels)
the distortion starts happening relatively early, and will probably noticeably limit my use of this pre.
i bought a 10db line pad which will hopefully increase the usefulness of the unit.
oh, one more thing. the first 1/5 of gain is nearly useless anyhow because in that area the volume rushes up quickly and cannot be set easily.
for the record, i was using the XLR output and not the 1/4 inch.
Synopsis, sounds very good given it’s price (much better than any tube pre i've ever owned..... but that club is very limited and cheep), but it’s usefulness is limited by what can only be seen as a design flaw.
