Electro Harmonix 12AY7 Mic Pre?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ben Logan
  • Start date Start date
Ben Logan:

The fact that you said: " I had to crank the pre and the post to get the level up" made me think you may be using the 1/4" output, which means you are actually going through an IC based buffer amp, rather than getting the actual tube goodness straight to tape (or DAW).

The 1/4" output is controlled by the knob on the right, and the pre itself is controlled with a single knob: the one on the left, for an all tube tape path... No IC's, just great discrete tube goodness. The designer of this pre is really a creative, amazing designer, and this pre shows off his ability to make something at a price point, and have it actually rock! Even the "soft start" function for the phantom is unique, especially to this price point!

I love this little pre, and now I have a prototype AND a production model, and the production model is exactly the same!

A few of the refinements to the prototype were because of engineers (like me) that asked for certain things. The pre you now own was really developed by people who actually record, rather than just as a "cheap ass tube pre." This is a real Tube mic pre for low dollars. The signal path is worth the money alone....

On a side note:

I am honored that a few of you guys actually read what I wrote about that thing and took it to heart. Makes me really glad to share information with such a cool community! Thanks!

-Joel hamilton

http://www.vsa.cape.com/~twreck
 
Joel man :D

nice to see you here! tape op is weird these days :/

sad that its going to end..at least for non subscribers.. :rolleyes:

anyway, i hope Ben takes what you said there in consideration if the new one he's getting will also be humming. i think i may take a little longer ordering mine, but it will be here one day.

nice to see you here Joel.
 
Right on, Diogo... Please feel free to still email me directly with any questions! i always like to reply, even if it is after a minute.. very busy (thankfully).
 
Hi Joel: I checked out your site-nice. I will take your opinion for gold! I see you have worked with Marc Ribot. I went to middle/high school with him. He played uniquely strange music back then....... Anyway, I have been getting into home recording over the past couple of years, and am starting to upgrade my gear. I just bought some decent mics ( C414 B ULS C414 TLII), and want to replace my cheap preamps- ART TPS II, with either the one mentioned in this thread, or the N72 from seventh circle audio. They are in my area, and I like to buy local. I am wondering how much "better" a sound will I get with the N72. I am not rich, but like a warm sound. I have made records in some great studios, and want to be able to get more near that sound. If you aren't too busy, I sure would like to hear what you have to say about these 2 preamps, and if anyone else has any info on this, I sure would appreciate it. I also heard through a friend that the EH pre amp is going to be offered in a rack mount with 4 pre amps in it. That would serve me perfect. I record live 4 track. Thanks! Walter

here is a link to about 300 of my songs, on my current gear.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/7/waltertoresspontobeat.htm
 
Hi there!

I dont have anything confirmed about a 4 channel pre... I simply dont know anything on that. I know the designer, but I cant predict the future.
The seventh circle stuff is ALL really good it seems. I have tried the API clone, and the N72. I like the API better, and I have a brent averill 1272 and a vintech x72... The N72 was just boring. it works, but nothing fun... The API one is great though.

My favorite new mic pre is the sage electronics pre...

http://www.sageelectronics.com

Great, great mic pre. Amazingly open without being bright.... That is the mark of a classic IMO....

Hope that helps!

-Joel
 
thanks for that link and info Joel. Those preamps look great, but are out of my budget. Tim, at 7th circle, rents a rack with 2 0f each of his preamps in it. THe rental fee is deducted from the price, if you buy. I may buy 1 EH and set it up side by side with the 7th audio stuff. My ears are my best decider. Walter
 
Hey Guys,

I've had house guests in town for the last week. I didn't have much chance to get those samples finished up for you all, but I'll contact Halion to get 'em thrown up on the web in the next week. I'm excited for you guys to hear my croaky ass singing through this pre.

Yes - Joel Hamilton is right: I am indeed running a 1/4 inch (and a guitar cord at that) out of the EHX pre, and into my M Audio 2496 (which only has 1/4 inputs). Joel suspects that this might be the cause of the hum. I wonder, would buying one of those cords with an XLR female on one side, and a 1/4 inch male on the other allow me to access the "all tube signal path" you talked about, Joel? I'm guessing yes. I'm excited to try it. Now if I only had 15 bucks for a cable. I'm that broke!

Yeah, I was being too optimistic when I said I "like the hum." I take that back. One particularly hot day last week (it seems to hum less during the evening - weird) I stacked up three tracks. The hum was so loud it actually generated a "note" that created dissonance between the hum and the key of the song. It pulled the whole two hour long session down under water and drowned the thing dead. BTW, I tried one of those two prong to three prong plug converters that you use to DIY "ground" - it didn't change the hum.

My new EHX pre still hasn't arrived. I'll let you all know if there's any difference.

Oh - here's some good news. The ugly clipping I described came from two sources that are not the EHX's pre's fault:

1. My lack of knowlege / experience with the pre
2. A blown "monitor" (read stereo) speaker

The distorted / clipped drums I described earlier were just me setting that input gain way too high for that loud of a signal. I've since recorded some other drums with good results (for my humble two mics on entire drum set method).

The clipped EHX pre guitar signal is clipped when you pan it to the right speaker on my "monitors," and nice sounding when panned to the left side. My astounding powers of deduction have generated a conclusion: I've blown my stereo speakers. So - this is good news for potential EHX Mic Pre customers.

Sometimes I marvel at what a novice at recording I still am even after three years of spending most of my free time doing it.

Ben
 
12ay7

I really hope that the hum is just a freak problem. Because ive always liked electro harmonix stuff vintage and reissue. Im not the kind of person who cares about getting all noise out of recordings, but i cant have a ton of hum either. Im hoping its got a great character to it even with some weird quirks that more "professional" minded people will hate. Im basically waiting to see how this guys replacement sounds before i buy one. I dont see how a company would try to pass off something with THAT much hum to it. Maybe a bit but that much sounds ridiculous.
 
No offence, but I highly, highly doubt it's really a problem native to this pre.
 
well fellas,

i guess we found the reason for the hum lol a guitar cable it is ;)

way to go Ben! :D

but hey, i would be in a rush to try it as well, believe me!

and the blown speaker...

you know, there probably wasnt anything wrong with your unit, did u try it out at the store when u asked for EH to send a new one?
 
diogo said:
well fellas,

i guess we found the reason for the hum lol a guitar cable it is ;)

way to go Ben! :D

but hey, i would be in a rush to try it as well, believe me!

and the blown speaker...

you know, there probably wasnt anything wrong with your unit, did u try it out at the store when u asked for EH to send a new one?
Click to expand...

Come to think of it Diogo, we did try out the first EHX pre at the store when it arrived. We plugged it into a behringer mixer, and used the XLR out (like Joel Hamilton recommends) instead of the 1/4 inch out. I did not hear any hum at the guitar store. In fact, we were both sitting around saying, "test test, check one, check two, check 'em both" and bobbing our heads up and down in approval of just how good and rich that sounded. But, it was a little tough to hear, as a drummer was wacking on a drumset on a riser about 5 feet above our heads.

I feel sorry for you all that I'm your "test unit," as I have the ultimate "chewing gum and duct-tape" recording rig. Remember, I don't think my garage is grounded, and as far as room sound goes, it sounds like a garage!

I tried to send Halion some sound samples to post yesterday, but kept getting a "page cannot be displayed" - Juno, our ISP, bites.
 
Ben, my inbox can take files up to 5 mb per file. Send me anything you want as long as it's under 5 megs. You can use yousendit.com for larger files.
 
Ben Logan said:
Come to think of it Diogo, we did try out the first EHX pre at the store when it arrived. We plugged it into a behringer mixer, and used the XLR out (like Joel Hamilton recommends) instead of the 1/4 inch out. I did not hear any hum at the guitar store. In fact, we were both sitting around saying, "test test, check one, check two, check 'em both" and bobbing our heads up and down in approval of just how good and rich that sounded. But, it was a little tough to hear, as a drummer was wacking on a drumset on a riser about 5 feet above our heads.

I feel sorry for you all that I'm your "test unit," as I have the ultimate "chewing gum and duct-tape" recording rig. Remember, I don't think my garage is grounded, and as far as room sound goes, it sounds like a garage!
Click to expand...


Ben,

thats right, u mentioned that earlier in the thread right? but its been so long that i had no idea about it..sorry, my mistake :D

hey dont feel sorry..its what you do with the gear, not the brand on the box or what friggin ever ;)

with that said..i still think u got one of the best pres in the market till u reach 1000 bucks or something...and i havent even heard it yet :D
 
My replacement for the first Electro Harmonix Mic Pre arrived yesterday. The first one shipped with a broken tube. I'd thought it might have sustained other damage, due to the hard knock it had obviously taken, so I requested a new one.

The second one sounds exactly the same. The hum in the background is ever present. The tone is great. But, if you're looking to use this guy on every track, that hum is likely going to be an issue after stacking a bunch on top of one another. Especially during quiet parts, or fade outs.

Another problem: a few posts ago I had written that I thought my monitors (stereo speakers) were blown, and that was why I was perceiving the electric guitar tracks as clipped. I was wrong. My speakers are fine. The EHX does a terrible job of recording electric guitars. Remember, you want to get a good hot signal to hard drive to cancel out the hum. But, if I turn the input gain anywhere past about 30 percent, the signal clips in a harsh, digital distortion sounding way. The clip light on the EHX is no where near clipping, and I am positive I'm not clipping the signal on the computer. I spent hours with this. So, what you have to do is back the input gain way off when recording elec. guitar. The tone is great, but the hum is too damn loud - i.e. the recorded sound isn't enough to compete with the noise floor.

It's still awesome for vocals - especially when using a noisegate to clamp down on the hum in between phrases. I also like it for acoustic guitar (condensor mics, esp large diaphram ones, are a better match for this pre, as there isn't much gain to power dynamic mics). The third best use is as a room mic for drums.

All the above written as a result of tracking using the XLR output, not the 1/4 inch output that we were hoping was the root of the hum problem. No such luck. The hum is reduced a bit with the XLR out though. Again, none of the plugs in our house are grounded, if this makes a diff., but this thing uses the same wall wart style power unit as my RNP, which doesn't buzz a bit.
 
HI Ben: Mine should be arriving today or tomorrow. I play quiet, often acoustic, and leave space. I will definetly be on the lookout for any hum. If mine hums, I will send it back. I can't see why anythig made today, should have such a problem. I will be posting some clips on my soundclick page of it against my ART TPS preamp. Walter
 
Great Walter. Looking forward to listening to your posts and learning how much of a factor the lack of grounding in our house is. If yours doesn't hum, and two of mine did, then we can probably pretty safely conclude it's my house that sucks! :p
 
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